After Joe Biden was in the lead following the reporting of just about all votes in the swing state of Wisconsin, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien has announced that the Trump campaign plans to request a recount in the state. Biden led in the unofficial tally by a little over 20,000 votes as of the time of Stepien’s announcement of the Trump campaign’s demand for a recount. Biden’s lead was under one percent, and leads that small allow for the winner’s opponent — in this case, Donald Trump — to request a recount.
When you count votes in a democracy, some of them are going to be for your opponent. I know that you would prefer to be a despotic strongman who didn't have to put up with pesky criticism from the press or genuine elections that count every vote. Deal with it – that's democracy. https://t.co/drha8qZ3sF
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) November 4, 2020
Stepien issued the following statement:
‘Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be. There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.’
Notably, this statement comes hours after Trump declared during an angry middle-of-the-night speech at the White House that he believed that ballot-counting should stop promptly, no matter uncounted yet valid ballots. Now, Trump’s campaign wants to start counting again. Read Stepien’s statement below:
Trump doing a quick pivot from "STOP COUNTING VOTES IMMEDIATELY" to "LETS COUNT ALL THE VOTES AGAIN" pic.twitter.com/5UVo12dhTt
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 4, 2020
Trump himself won the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania by very small margins in 2016. In that election, Trump’s leading margin in Wisconsin was also under one percent in the state’s final results, meaning that Wisconsin has been stunningly close in two presidential elections in a row. Like elsewhere in the country, voter turnout seems to have significantly grown in Wisconsin compared to 2016. In 2016, Trump won in the state with a little over 1.4 million total votes — and this time around, Biden led in the early unofficial results with a little over 1.6 million total votes. Trump also passed 1.6 million total votes in the state during this election, adding about a couple hundred thousand total votes onto his 2016 total — with Biden adding about the same amount on the Democratic side.
A recount in Wisconsin might not change the results much, and a perhaps surprising source — former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is an ardent Republican — pointed out this fact. Walker noted two recent Wisconsin recounts in which the vote tallies changed by 300 or less during the process. In other words — there’s not exactly some easy inroad for Trump to surmount the about 20,000-vote lead in the state that Biden has.
After recount in 2011 race for WI Supreme Court, there was a swing of 300 votes. After recount in 2016 Presidential race in WI, @realDonaldTrump numbers went up by 131.
As I said, 20,000 is a high hurdle. #Election2020 https://t.co/CEr82eiCWH
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) November 4, 2020