trump
© Reuters / Carlos BarriaDonald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, November 13, 2020
The Trump campaign filed a petition on Nov. 18 for a partial recount in Wisconsin of several counties, and has spent $3 million to cover the estimated cost.

A full recount of the state would cost around $8 million, Wisconsin election officials have previously said.

The recount request is for Milwaukee and Dane counties, the campaign said, noting there were alleged "illegally altered absentee ballots, illegally issued absentee ballots, and illegal advice given by government officials allowing Wisconsin's Voter ID laws to be circumvented," according to a statement.

The campaign further accused the Wisconsin Elections Commission of directing municipal clerks to illegally alter absentee ballots, which is illegal under state law. Clerks were told to use their own "personal knowledge" as well as "lists or databases at his or her disposal" to add missing information that is required by law on absentee ballots, the campaign asserts.


The commission's public information officer, Reid Magney, told the Journal Sentinel on Nov. 18 that the guidance was issued several years ago that clerks are required to "take corrective actions in an attempt to remedy a witness address error."

He added, "The guidance has been in effect for 11 statewide elections, including the 2016 presidential and presidential recount, and no one has objected to it until now."

He didn't elaborate on whether that circumvents state law.

But the campaign said that clerks across the state also sent "absentee ballots to voters without requiring an application," which is in "direct conflict with Wisconsin's absentee voting safeguards," as state law stipulates that absentee ballots shouldn't be issued without written consent via an application.

In June, the Wisconsin Elections Commission gave its final approval to mailing out absentee ballot application forms, but the order didn't stipulate sending out ballots themselves to voters.

"Wisconsin law expressly requires that absentee ballots may not be issued without receiving a written application requesting the ballot," the Trump campaign said. "Despite this clear mandatory requirement, clerks uniformly issued absentee ballots without collecting a written application from persons who requested absentee ballots in person during the two week in-person absentee voting period that ran from October 20, 2020, through November 1, 2020."

The Trump team also claimed that Democrat county clerks in some areas "illegally advised voters to illegally mischaracterize that they were indefinitely confined to circumvent Wisconsin voter ID law." It noted that there were more than 72,000 who were described as "indefinitely confined" in 2019, but there were more than 240,000 during the time of the 2020 elections.

"We will not stop fighting for transparency and integrity in our electoral process to ensure that all Americans can trust the results of a free and fair election in Wisconsin and across the country," Jim Troupis, counsel to the campaign, said in a statement.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission didn't immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about the Trump campaign's claims.