A statewide recount of Wisconsin’s presidential vote has wrapped up ahead of schedule. State election officials certified the results Monday afternoon…a day early. Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Mike Haas called it a remarkable achievement by the state’s county clerks.
“This is something that has not been done before, and the fact that it was done in ten days is really a credit to those individuals” said Haas.
The recount uncovered several hundred votes that were either missed or mis-counted on election night. However, the results were still largely the same. Republican president-elect Donald Trump added 131 votes to his margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, winning Wisconsin with about 1.4 million votes. Although the results, were the same, some would argue that it was worthwhile.
Elections commission member Don Millis says it did uncover several hundred votes missed on election night.
“The vast majority of the changes were do to either writing in the wrong number, or some sort of humane error.”
Millis, a Republican appointee, says he would favor a change in state law that would make it harder for losing candidates to request a recount.
“I think it is unfortunate that it did not have to happen and my personal view is that it is part of a scam that allowed Jill Stein and the Green Party to raise more money.”
Wisconsin Elections Commission chairman Mark Thomsen disagrees, saying the recount did help to identify weaknesses with how ballots were counted.
“A basic requirement is if you vote on election, you are assuming that your valid legal vote is counted” said Thomsen. “This recount made that happen.”
Thomsen added that there is no evidence to prove that Wisconsin voting machines were tampered with.
by: Andrew Beckett, Wisconsin Radio Network News