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MADISON, Wisconsin: Counting the presidential election in Wisconsin’s two most Democratic counties began on Friday (November 20) with President Donald Trump’s campaign seeking to discard tens of thousands of absentee ballots that he alleged should not have been counted.
All three of Trump’s objections to attempting to discard the ballots were rejected by three members of the Dane County Board of Electors, twice by bipartisan votes. Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said he hoped the campaign was building a record before filing a lawsuit.
Joe Biden won Wisconsin by 20,600 votes and led Dane and Milwaukee counties by a 2-1 margin. Trump only paid the counts in those two counties, not the other 70, 58 of which he won.
There is no precedent for a recount to reverse a deficit as large as Trump’s in Wisconsin, so his strategy is seen as looking to build a case to take to court.
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On Friday, his team tried to discard the ballots where the election clerks filled in the missing address information in the certification envelope where the ballot is inserted; any absentee ballot on which a voter was declared “indefinitely confined” under the law; and any absentee ballots where there was no written request on file, including approximately 69,000 that were cast in person during the two weeks before Election Day.
Trump’s attorney, Christ Troupis, argued that certification envelopes filled out by absentee voters in person do not count under the law as a written request, even if the envelope is identified as such. The canvass board, controlled 2-1 by Democrats, voted unanimously to reject the complaint.
Troupis also argued that people claimed to be indefinitely confined even though they were not. Such a statement exempts the voter from having to show photo identification to cast their vote, what Troupis called “an open invitation to fraud and abuse.” The Republican-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 Wisconsin Elections Commission of both parties.
The canvassing board voted 2-1 to count those ballots, with the Republican against.
Trump’s attorney also asserted that the law does not allow clerks to fill in missing information in the envelope that accompanies absentee ballots. The state election commission told the clerks before the elections that they can fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes, a practice that has been in place for at least the last 11 elections.
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The canvassing board voted unanimously to count those ballots.
In Milwaukee, the Canvassing Committee accepted Trump’s request to set aside all absentee ballot envelopes, which claimed voters “indefinitely confined” the state and those that have two different colors of ink, perhaps indicating that someone other than the voter has completed the information.
Trump also called for separating absentee ballots with or without written requests and looking at the absentee ballot records that would count those requested through the state’s myvote.wi.gov website. Unlike in Dane County, the Trump campaign in Milwaukee initially only asked that those ballots and others be reviewed, not discounted.
In both Madison and Milwaukee, the counts were conducted in large convention centers so that workers could distance themselves and protect themselves against the spread of the coronavirus. Observers were asked to wear masks and Plexiglas shields were installed.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson, a Democrat, said it was irresponsible of Trump to force the recount amid the emerging pandemic in Wisconsin.
“It just shows your lack of empathy for the American people,” Christenson said.
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In Milwaukee, the Rev. Greg Lewis, founding president of religious leaders groups seeking to strengthen Black participation, said the count highlights the “oppression, disenfranchisement, outright racism and disrespect” that minority communities in Milwaukee face.
“I almost died and we are running around here counting votes unnecessarily,” said Lewis, who contracted COVID-19 earlier this year. “This doesn’t make sense. This is unfortunate. Why do we keep putting up with this? People have decided, let it be.”
There have been at least 31 counts in state elections in the United States since the most famous in the Florida presidential election in 2000. The counts changed the outcome of three races. All three were decided by hundreds of votes, not thousands.
