Wisconsin agrees to statewide recount in presidential race
On December 13, 2020, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) announced that it would conduct a statewide recount of the presidential election results in Wisconsin. This decision came after the Trump campaign requested a recount, citing concerns about the accuracy of the results.
The recount was triggered by a petition filed by the Trump campaign, which claimed that there were irregularities and errors in the original count. The petition cited specific counties and municipalities where the campaign believed there were issues with the counting process.
The WEC voted 3-2 along party lines to approve the recount, with the Democratic members of the commission opposing the move. The recount was expected to take several weeks to complete, and the results were not expected to change the outcome of the election.
The recount was conducted by hand, with election officials re-counting the ballots in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties. The process was overseen by the WEC and monitored by representatives from the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign.
On December 14, 2020, the WEC announced the results of the recount, which showed that Joe Biden had won the state by a margin of 0.63% (20,682 votes). The recount did not change the outcome of the election, and Biden was declared the winner of Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes.
The Trump campaign had requested a recount in an effort to challenge the results of the election, but the outcome ultimately did not change. The recount was seen as a way for the Trump campaign to try to undermine the legitimacy of the election results, but it ultimately did not succeed.
The Wisconsin recount was one of several recounts conducted in key states across the country in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Other states that conducted recounts included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.