US Elections: Wisconsin Certifies Joe Biden Winner After Recount

Joe Biden’s victory on the Wisconsin battlefield was certified today after a partial recount that only added to his 20,600-vote margin over President Donald Trump, who promised to file a lawsuit to undo the results.

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, signed a certificate completing the process after the poll report showing Biden as the winner after the recount was approved by the chair of the Wisconsin bipartisan Elections Commission. Evers’ signature was required by law and is typically a procedural step that receives little attention.

“Today I fulfilled my duty to certify the November 3 elections,” Evers said in a statement. “I want to thank our clerks, election administrators and poll workers throughout our state for working tirelessly to ensure that we have a safe, fair and efficient election. Thank you for all your good work.”

Today’s action (Monday, local time) now begins a five-day period for Trump to file a lawsuit, which he promised would arrive no later than tomorrow (Tuesday, local time). Trump is mounting a risky attempt to nullify the results by disqualifying up to 238,000 votes. Trump’s lawyers have alleged without evidence that there was widespread fraud and illegal activity.

Biden’s campaign has said the tally showed that Biden won Wisconsin decisively and that there was no fraud. Even if Trump were successful in Wisconsin, the state’s 10 Electoral College votes would not be enough to undo Biden’s overall victory, as states across the country certify the results. Earlier today, Arizona officials certified Biden’s narrow victory in that state.

“There is no basis for any claim that there was widespread fraud that would have affected the results,” said Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in a statement today. He noted that Trump’s count focused only on the two most populous counties in the state where the majority of blacks live.

“I have every confidence that this shameful Jim Crow strategy for massive disenfranchisement will fail,” Kaul said. “An election is not a game of catching.”

State law gives the power to confirm election results to the chairman of the Wisconsin bipartisan Elections Commission. The seat rotates between Republicans and Democrats and is currently held by Ann Jacobs, a Democrat. She signed the scrutiny statement certifying Biden as the winner over objections from Republicans who wanted to wait until legal challenges were exhausted.

Under state law, election staff then sent a certificate to Evers for him to sign and send to the US General Service Administrator, a procedural step since the law says the governor will “sign it.” Evers did so about an hour after the scrutiny results were confirmed.

Trump’s legal challenges have failed in other battle states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Two lawsuits from other individuals seeking to disqualify ballots in Wisconsin were filed last week with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has not taken action.

Trump paid $ 3 million for counts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin’s two largest Democratic counties, but the count ended up increasing Biden’s lead by 74 votes. Biden won statewide by nearly 20,700 votes.

Trump, during the count, tried to discard the ballots where the clerks of elections filled in the address information that was missing from the certification envelope where the ballot is inserted. The state election commission told the clerks before the elections that they could fill in the missing information on absentee ballot envelopes, a practice that has been in place for at least the last 11 elections and that no court has declared illegal.

Trump also challenged any absentee vote in which a voter declared himself “indefinitely confined” under the law, a designation that increased from about 57,000 in 2016 to nearly 216,000 this year due to the pandemic. Such a statement exempts the voter from having to show photo identification to cast their vote, what Trump’s attorney, Christ Troupis, called “an open invitation to fraud and abuse.” The conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled this spring that it is up to individual voters to determine whether they are indefinitely confined, based on guidance from the state election commission.

Trump also sought to discard any absentee ballots where there was no written request on file and all absentee ballots cast in person during the two weeks leading up to Election Day.

People who vote in person in advance fill out a certification envelope in which they then place their ballot and that envelope serves as a written record. But the vast majority of absent applications these days are made online, with a voter’s name entered into an electronic register with no paper registration.

Disqualification of all the ballots in Milwaukee and Dane counties that Trump identified during the recount would result in more than 238,000 uncounted votes, according to an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The conservative Wisconsin Voters Alliance sued last week seeking to block the certification of the results and give the Republican-controlled Legislature the power to nominate presidential electors to cast the state’s 10 Electoral College votes. The Wisconsin Democratic Party previously selected Biden’s 10 voters as prescribed by law. The signing of the counting statement on Monday confirmed that Biden receives all 10 state Electoral College votes from those voters.

Another lawsuit filed over the weekend by Wisconsin resident Dean Mueller argues that ballots placed in mailboxes are illegal and should not be counted.

– Associated Press