Wisconsin Recount Completed Ahead of Schedule With Relatively Small Changes to Final Totals

MADISON, WI – Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Mark Thomsen today certified results of the presidential election following a 10-day recount process, confirming Republican Donald J. Trump the winner in Wisconsin.

“Completing this recount was a challenge, but the real winners are the voters,” said Thomsen. “Based on the recount, they can have confidence that Wisconsin’s election results accurately reflect the will of the people, regardless of whether they are counted by hand or by machine. The Commission thanks all those involved in the recount for their hard work and dedication.”

Donald Trump received 1,405,284 votes in the recount compared to 1,404,440 in the original canvass.  Hillary Clinton received 1,382,536 votes in the recount compared to 1,381,823 in the recount. The original margin between the top two candidates was 22,617 votes. After the recount, the margin is 22,748. After the recount, Trump’s margin over Clinton increased by just 131 votes.

During the last statewide recount in 2011 for Supreme Court Justice, the net change in totals between the two top candidates was 312 votes.

“The biggest reason for these small differences between the unofficial results on Election Night, the counties original canvasses and the recount results is human error,” said WEC Administrator Michael Haas. “Some voters do not follow the instructions and mark their ballots correctly for the machines can count them. In the tight deadlines to report the results, election officials make math mistakes, we forget things, we accidentally transpose numbers. ”

“That said, this recount was a remarkable job by Wisconsin’s local election officials – county clerks and municipal clerks and their staffs, canvass board members, tabulators – most of whom did not know until the Monday after Thanksgiving that we would likely have a recount of the presidential election in Wisconsin,” Haas said. “Three days later they were starting the recount, and all counties were done with the counting process within 10 days.”

“I said from the start that this would be a challenge for some counties to complete, but Wisconsin election officials have risen to many challenges in recent years. They worked evenings and weekends.  Waukesha County had shifts working until midnight. Dane County committed to counting every ballot by hand. Across the state thousands of dedicated individuals put their personal plans on hold to ensure that the recount was conducted accurately and efficiently, and we appreciate their work,” Haas said.

Updated totals will be posted shortly on the WEC website: http://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/recount/2016-presidential. Official canvass results will be posted here:

http://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/results.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.