Wisconsin’s presidential recount has been completed and the Wisconsin Elections Commission certified the results Monday, December 12th.
The Commission declared President-elect Donald Trump the winner in Wisconsin.
According to the Commission, out of 2.975 million votes cast in the presidential election, the recount revealed a net change across candidates of just 1,769 votes.
That means the recount changed the Wisconsin presidential election results by 0.06 percent.
Updated numbers from @WI_Elections official canvass: Trump +837, Clinton +706. Trump wins by 131 more votes after #WIRecount
Mr. Trump gained 837 votes and Hillary Clinton added 706, meaning that Mr. Trump added 131 more votes than he had on Election Night.
Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Mark Thomsen certified a canvass statement in Madison at 3:00 p.m. on Monday — a day ahead of the federal deadline — guaranteeing Congress will recognize Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes. The canvass statement signed is the official Wisconsin result of the general election, conducted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2016, for the Office of President of the United States.
“I`m personally very happy (the recount) was done because not only Wisconsin, the world knows our system has integrity,” Thomsen said.
One Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission called the recount “a scam.”
“Need to do a little bit more to keep this from happening,” Don Millis said.
Below is a statement from the Wisconsin Republican Party on the completion of the recount:
“This recount served as nothing more than one final, desperate attempt for Hillary Clinton and her most extreme supporters to try and overturn Wisconsin’s election results. Now that this absurd political stunt has ended, we can focus on coming together behind common-sense reforms in Washington and an agenda that will move Wisconsin and this country forward.”
Governor Scott Walker on Monday called it a “ridiculous” recount, and commended county clerks for working long hours to finish counting.
“I think they`ve shown throughout this process it was very clear that the vote was legitimate here in the state. For a lot of the clerks in particular, municipal clerks, are going through the process of going through property tax bills, doing year-end work, so I thought it was an added burden, unfortunately, for them. This is allowed by the law, but they obviously up for the challenge,” Governor Walker said.
Speaking to conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes, Governor Walker said he and fellow Republicans would seek changes to state law that allowed Green Party candidate Jill Stein to successfully request the recount.
Two Elections Commission members said they wouldn’t specifically ask the Legislature for the change.
“It will not be our job to make recommendations to the Legislature,” Thomsen said.
The recount began December 1st after Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested and paid for it. We don’t yet know the total actual cost of the recount, but Stein will have to pay the bill.
Her attempts to get recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania were blocked in court. Stein suggested without evidence that voting machines in the three states could have been hacked.