Wisconsin Republicans urged President Trump’s campaign to turn its attention to the ballot count in their state to root out possible voting irregularities during an impending recount.
The call comes as the Trump campaign is challenging vote counts in several battleground states where Joe Biden, the presumptive winner, leads in the ballot count that is still underway.
“The campaign should make some decisions and get involved and start doing what they need to do to get things accomplished,” said Rick Baas, the communications director for the Milwaukee County Republican Party.
“They’re mostly focused on Arizona right now,” Baas said. “People forget there’s down-ticket races that fall within the statutory recount as well. Nobody seems to care about that.”
Baas, who is also a Milwaukee County election commissioner, emphasized that he was speaking in his role as a political operative.
He said that he heard allegations of irregularities in how ballots had been handled, as well as possible electioneering, “but unless we have a recount, it’s really never going to come up.”
Kenneth Dragotta, a board member of the Waukesha County Republican Party, said he knew of ballots being transported from a polling location to a consolidation location on a city bus. While not a crime, it raised questions about the integrity of the process.
“If the ballot bag spills over in the bus and ballots are all over the bus, you can then make the claim that there’s a question in the chain of custody of the ballot,” he said.
Trump campaign officials told supporters during a fundraising call on Saturday that they would seek a recount following the canvass of votes, whereby the state can certify an election’s unofficial results and make them official.
“There were some serious irregularities on Election Day that we are looking into. We’ve already announced that we’re going to seek a statewide recount in Wisconsin, and we plan to do so,” Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said. “We expect that the canvass, the initial canvass will be done Monday or Tuesday. And then that process will begin.”
This “initial canvass” could mean a statistical canvass to guide the campaign’s decision-making, Baas said, adding that the canvasses that matter are those completed by the counties, including Dane County and Waukesha County, and by state clerks.
“Once those canvasses are all done, they’re turned into the state election commission, and once they certify it, then you can go ahead, and you can take your recount,” he said.
“Canvassing only reconciles the discrepancies in the polls, unless you have observers that are there and are willing to challenge what we know to be ballots that shouldn’t be cast,” Dragotta said. “Typically, they’re not challenged at canvass. They’re challenged at recount.”
Dragotta, who directed the recount for Trump in 2016 in Milwaukee County and in Waukesha County, said there may be hurdles ahead.
“I think that there is a large number of ballots that were accepted that are outside of what is considered to be via statute, a legal vote. The question is, is there 20,000? Is there more? Is there less?” he said. Biden was declared the winner of the state by the Associated Press with a 20,000-vote margin.
In a tweet, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pointed to 20,000 as “a high hurdle” to overcome. “After recount in 2016 Presidential race in WI, @realDonaldTrump numbers went up by 131,” he said.
“When you’re looking at a recount, you have to take whatever your argument is and put it in front of the board of canvassers for that county,” he continued. “Depending on the veracity of your argument, you may succeed, you may not succeed. So, unless you have clear documented proof, as a canvasser, I would tell you, I can’t just base my decision on some circumstantial information. I’d have to have proof.”
Dragotta said this can take a “substantial” amount of time, adding that these steps “need to be done well in advance of election like this.”
Baas said the national party hasn’t shifted its attention to his county yet, in part because Wisconsin has until Nov. 17 to certify their race, 14 days after the general election. “They’ve just got to allocate the resources,” Baas said. “Right now, they’re busy chasing after that.”
The Trump campaign has sent numerous texts and emails soliciting donations for an election defense fund, the terms of which say 60% will be allocated to the “retirement of general election debt,” with 40% remaining going to the Republican National Committee operating, legal proceedings, or headquarters accounts.
