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Published 12:52 IST, November 29th 2020

Joe Biden leads with 'more votes' in Milwaukee County recount that cost Trump $3 million

Milwaukee recount, which cost Trump campaign nearly $3m, resulted in President-elect Joe Biden's lead with a net gain of 257 votes to President Trump’s 125.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
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President-elect Joe Biden won the primarily Democratic Milwaukee County over incumbent President Donald Trump with 257 more ballots in the final tally show, as Wisconsin concluded the ‘recounting of votes’ that started last Friday, November 20. Milwaukee recount, which had cost the Trump campaign nearly $3m, resulted in Biden's lead with a net gain of 257 votes to Trump’s 125 that jumped his vote count to 317,527, of nearly 460,000 total casts. The republicans had demanded the recounting of votes in Wisconsin’s populous and Democratic-leaning counties after US President lost to Biden with more than 20,000 votes. While Biden was declared a projected winner of the presidential race with 306 electoral college to Trump’s 232, President Donald Trump’s campaign lead asserted that only “legal votes” must be tallied in the two counties as they slapped lawsuits. 

After the recount, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson told AP that the results from the Wisconsin counties demonstrated “what we already know.” Further, he added that the elections were, in fact, fair,  transparent, accurate, and secure. The state is expected to certify the result on November 30.  Dane County, another Democratic stronghold is still ongoing with the votes recounts and is expected to finish the tallies by the end of the day.

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"Elections in Milwaukee County are fair, we have once again demonstrated good government in Wisconsin. I promised this would be a transparent and fair process, and it was,”  George Christenson, Milwaukee County Clerk, was quoted by AP as saying. 

Read: 'High Hurdle': Donald Trump Campaign Seeks 'hand Recount' Of 5 Million Ballots In Georgia

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Read: Georgia Completes Hand Recount Of Ballots, Affirms Joe Biden's Win: Election Officials

[Election workers recount ballots at the presidential election recount at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Election officials accused observers of President Donald Trump of seeking to obstruct a recount, in some instances by objecting to every ballot tabulators pulled to count. Credit: Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP]

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[An election worker requests help while recounting ballots at the presidential election recount at the Wisconsin Center. Credit: AP]

Trump gained 68 votes

In Dane counties with a 2-to-1 margin for the Democrats, President Trump has gained 68 votes over Biden thus far, according to sources of Fox news. Meanwhile, the chief election official for the city of Milwaukee, Claire Woodall-Vogg told Fox that the discrepancies occurred due to ‘Human error,' reiterating that elections were 'fair and just'.While the Democratic chair of the bipartisan Wisconsin Election Commission is set to certify the results, pro-Trump conservative group Wisconsin Voters Alliance has filed a separate lawsuit seeking to block the certification in the court. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ attorneys, however, filed another lawsuit in response asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it a "brazen attack on democracy itself”. 

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Meanwhile, Trump’s attorneys have challenged the results, alleging, that the “indefinitely confined” voters had cast absentee ballots without the IDs. Further, they alleged that because the certification envelope depicted two inks, it suggests fraud and indicates foul as the poll workers may have completed identification themselves. Those ballots were recounted by the election officials as 'exhibits' with a prior request made by the Trump campaign. Thus far, Trump's legal gambit has overturned in the state of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. 

Read: Wisconsin Officials: Trump Observers Obstructing Recount

Read: Georgia, Wisconsin Recount Unlikely To Change US election Result As Trump Alleges Fraud

12:54 IST, November 29th 2020