Trump files for partial Wisconsin recount after failing to find enough funds for a full one

Officials say it is unlikely the recount will make a substantial difference in the final results

File: A voter casts a ballot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 20 October (REUTERS)

President Donald Trump's campaign committed $3m on Wednesday in order to request a partial recount of votes in the state of Wisconsin to look into "irregularities" in the state, where Joe Biden is leading by over 20,000 votes.  

State rules stipulate that either party may call a recount in a tight race, but that they must stump up the cost of the exercise themselves. With mounting legal costs already, the Trump campaign has baulked at the approximately $7.9m cost of a state-wide recount, and instead limited its request to Milwaukee County and Dane County.

The counties, seen as Democratic strongholds, will have 13 days to recount all their votes beginning from Thursday, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The deadline to complete the recount and certify the final results is 1 December.  

However, it is unlikely that the recount will make a substantial difference in the final vote count, said Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk.

The unofficial results tally projects Mr Biden as beating Mr Trump in Wisconsin by over 20,000 votes.  

In its request for a partial recount in the state, the Trump campaign alleged absentee ballots had been “illegally altered” and wrongly issued, and illegal advice was given by government officials allowing voter identity laws to be circumvented.

Mr Trump has refused to concede since all major news channels declared victory for Mr Biden in the election, instead promoting unsubstantiated claims of fraud while refusing to allow the start of the transition process. In a bid to overturn the result, Mr Trump’s campaign has brought several lawsuits in key states that currently favour Mr Biden.  

Meanwhile, his re-election campaign has been asking supporters to foot the bill to cover the mounting legal costs. According to US media reports, the campaign is soliciting at least $60m from the public to fund its lawsuits.

Dane County’s clerk said the recount would be unlikely to return a significant swing in votes, "certainly nothing anywhere near what would be required for a change in outcomes".

"This was a really clean election from our point of view," he said.

Tom Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee County which is home to the largest black population in Wisconsin, slammed Mr Trump’s campaign for requesting the recount. He said it was an attack on people of colour, and a racially biased bid to undermine the election.

"It's a very futile attempt to try to disrupt democracy in the most Democratic counties in the state of Wisconsin. This is flat out attack on democracy in cities and places where people of colour live," said Mr Barrett.

President-elect Joe Biden is projected to have won the race to the White House with a popular vote margin of more than 5.6 million ballots, or 3.6 percentage points. The Democrat presidential nominee is leading by 306 votes to Mr Trump's 232 in the electoral college.

Mr Trump would have to flip the results in his favour in at least three states to be reelected as president. Joe Biden is ahead by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, where Rudy Giuliani is leading the Trump campaign’s legal charge, and the Democrat leads by 14,000 votes in Georgia, where a state-wide recount is almost complete.