On Saturday, Election officials in Wisconsin accused observers for President Donald Trump of seeking to obstruct a recount of the presidential results, by breaking the rules, and in some instances by objecting to every ballot tabulators pulled to count, the Associated Press reports.
As noted by the AP, “Trump requested the recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties, both heavily liberal, in hopes of undoing Democrat Joe Biden’s victory by about 20,600 votes. With no precedent for a recount reversing such a large margin, Trump’s strategy is widely seen as aimed at an eventual court challenge, part of a push in key states to undo his election loss.”
County clerk George Christenson said that a barrage of Republican frivolous complaints in Milwaukee was putting the recount far behind schedule. He also said many Trump observers were breaking rules by constantly interrupting vote counters with questions and comments.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said. He said some of the Trump observers “clearly don’t know what they are doing.”
County election commissioner Tim Posnanski told his fellow commissioners there appeared to be two Trump representatives at some tables where tabulators were counting ballots, violating rules that call for one observer from each campaign per table. Posnanski said some Trump representatives seemed to be posing as independents.
At one recount table, a Trump observer objected to every ballot that tabulators pulled from a bag simply because they were folded, election officials told the panel.
Posnanski called it “prima facie evidence of bad faith by the Trump campaign.” He added later: “I want to know what is going on and why there continues to be obstruction.”
Read more at the Associated Press.
