US President Donald Trump‘s push to recount votes in the pivotal state of Wisconsin netted his opponent, President-elect Joe Biden, an extra 87 votes. It also cost the Trump campaign a cool US$3 million (AU$4 million).
I wouldn’t classify myself an expert in campaign strategy, but I think setting a pile of cash on fire would have been a better investment for Team Trump.
NBC reports that Trump, who baselessly claims this month’s Presidential Election was riddled with voter fraud, was once again found to have lost the northern state.
Despite picking up an extra 45 votes in the second-to-last county to finalise its recount, the tally from Milwaukee County provided an extra 132 votes to Biden, a net gain of 87 votes for the Democrat.
This doesn’t overturn the results of Wisconsin, mind you. Even before the recount, Biden was found to have won by approximately 20,600 votes.
Speaking on Friday, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson told Reuters the recount “demonstrates what we already know: that elections in Milwaukee County are fair, transparent, accurate and secure.”
Trump has refused to concede the election, even as government authorities begin the transition process.
He has, however, claimed the recount process was actually about finding “illegal” votes, and that he’ll challenge the recount in court over the next couple of days.
The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday. We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2020
But there’s zero concrete proof for the oceans of illegal votes that Trump is wailing on about, and multiple embarrassments in court across other states suggests as much.
As it stands – and it will stand, unless a magic sack of mail-in Trump ballots falls from the sky – Biden won the election by more than six million popular votes.
He also clinched the crucial Electoral College vote, securing 306 of the votes required for victory. Trump claimed 232.
Trump’s scattershot approach to challenging the election results is a telling coda to a presidency beset by paranoia and a loose grip on reality. But hey, at least a few million bucks went into proving that voter fraud is far less likely than his supporters might imagine.
