Press Release
Wisconsin Recount More Than 70 percent Complete
Relatively Few Totals Changed
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
MADISON, WI – Here are the latest recount developments from the Wisconsin Elections Commission:
- After Tuesday, December 6, approximately 70 percent of the 2.97 million votes cast in the election have been recounted, and all Wisconsin counties remain on track to finish their work by the deadline of 8 p.m. Monday, December 12.
- Thirty-four counties have completed their work: Adams, Barron, Bayfield, Columbia, Crawford, Dodge, Door, Douglas, Florence, Fond du Lac, Forest, Green, Green Lake, Iron, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Lafayette, Langlade, Menominee, Ozaukee, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Price, Sawyer, Shawano, St. Croix, Taylor, Vernon, Walworth, Washburn, Washington and Waupaca. This list does not include counties that have finished recounting ballots but have not yet reported those results to the Commission.
- The Commission is now able to provide a running tally of how many votes each candidate is up or down. However, the numbers do not include the City of Milwaukee, which has reported partial numbers for individual reporting units (wards or combinations of wards) because it is recounting absentee ballots separately.
- Based on this analysis, Trump/Pence are up 410 votes, Clinton/Kaine are up 492 votes, Castle/Bradley are up 12 votes, Johnson/Weld are up 46 votes, Stein/Baraka are up 60 votes, Moorehead/Lilly are up 9 votes, and De la Fuente/Steinberg are up 7 votes.
- Trump/Pence originally led Clinton/Kaine by 22,177. So far, not including the City of Milwaukee, Clinton/Kaine have gained 82 more votes than Trump/Pence, but still trail.
- The daily spreadsheets containing updates can be found on the 2016 Presidential Recount page: http://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/recount/2016-presidential. When a county has reported a vote difference of 10 votes or more in a reporting unit (ward or combination of wards), we are providing the board of canvassers’ explanation for the difference.
- So far, most changes between canvass results and recount results are due to human error. In the City of Marinette, the Marinette County Board of Canvassers discovered that the use of nonstandard ink pens caused approximately 309 absentee ballots out of more than 20,000 cast countywide to be undercounted. Because they were absentee ballots, poll workers should have recognized the problem and remade the ballots using standard pens that would be read by the optical scanner. All Marinette County ballots were hand-recounted, resulting in 118 additional votes for Trump/Pence and 166 additional votes for Clinton/Kaine.
- A sortable table providing each county’s recount status and links to the original canvass results, recount results and board of canvassers’ minutes (if available) is now available on the 2016 Presidential Recount page.
- Over the last several days, a few obscure websites have posted what could be characterized as “fake news” stories containing inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information about the recount, often based on unverified social media posts. Unfortunately, this unverified information is rewritten into fake news and then gets shared repeatedly on social media sites. Here are the facts:
- Votes for Trump/Pence are not being counted twice in Waukesha County.
- Ballots can be inserted in scanners face up or face down. Before ballots are scanned, campaign representatives have already had a chance to view and question them.
- In St. Croix County, warranty seals on some scanners were broken by an authorized technician performing maintenance. The technician did not have replacement seals with him. Based on evidence provided by the St. Croix County Clerk’s office and the equipment manufacturer, the Commission staff is confident that the voting equipment is accurately tabulating and reporting the results in St. Croix County.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission is responsible for administration and enforcement of election laws in Wisconsin. The Commission is made up of six Commissioners – four appointed directly by the State Senate Majority Leader, Speaker of the Assembly and the Minority Leaders in the State Senate and Assembly. The remaining two Commissioners are by the Governor with confirmation by the State Senate from lists of former municipal and county clerks submitted by the legislative leadership in each party.
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.
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