Absurd, bizarre, paranoid conspiracy: Wisconsin officials offer verdict on Trump's latest $3m bid to overturn results

Recount begins on Friday and must be completed by 1 Dec

After $3m dollars and a six hour fight, the Wisconsin Elections Commission agreed to recount ballots cast in Milwaukee and Dane counties at the request of Donald Trump.  

Mr Trump paid $3m for the recount of the state's most populous counties; one home to the city of Milwaukee, and the other home to Madison, both liberal strongholds.  

The elections commission - evenly split between Democrats and Republicans - fought for approximately six hours over whether their manual for local governments conducting recounts needed updates. Eventually, the group agreed not to reference the manual in its recount order, but not before an exasperated Democratic commissioner lamented how destructive the nation's partisanship had become.  

“It’s just remarkable the six of us in a civilised fashion can’t agree to this stuff,” Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen said.  

According to the Associated Press, Democratic members of the commission are certain that the recount will end up in the courts even though Mr Biden leads Mr Trump by more than 20,000 votes and beat the president by more than a 2-to-1 margin in Milwaukee and Dane counties.

Ann Jacobs, the chair of the elections commission and a Democrat, said Mr Trump's claim that election officials mailed out thousands of absentee ballots to people who never requested them was "absurd".  

She said the allegations were "factually bizarre" and that Mr Trump was peddling a "vague, paranoid conspiracy".  

“What we ought not be doing is watering that plant of baloney,” she said.

On the Republican side, commissioners Dean Knudson and Bob Spindell raised questions over the validity of absentee ballots requested through the commission's website.  

“I hope we haven’t created a system at WEC that entices people to request a ballot that actually isn’t in keeping with the law,” Mr Knudson said.  

The Democrats on the commission dismissed his prodding as absurd, noting that the system had been in place for years and was never questioned until this election.  

The Republicans also wondered if their poll observers would be treated fairly by Democratic election clerks in Milwaukee and Madison, echoing Mr Trump's and other right-wing politicians and media figures who have thus-far baselessly claimed Republican observers were treated unfairly.  

The recount will begin on Friday. The deadline is 1 Dec.