MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County’s recount came to an abrupt halt on its first day Friday.
This, after a series of objections from the Trump campaign when observers expressed concern about the plexiglass they had to stand behind.
Trump observers said they couldn’t properly see through it to watch election officials conducting the recount. That sparked a series of other objections, mainly surrounding absentee ballots and envelopes. The requests are as follows, along with the Board of Canvassers’ response:
Requesting that all written applications for absentee ballots are present during the recount and are set aside for observation.
Board response: All requests are either on site, or being brought on site. We will be providing a report that will show this tab for every single absentee voter in Milwaukee County.
Requesting that all absentee ballot envelopes without a written application set aside for observation.
Board response: Based on our review, there are no documents that are responsive to this request.
Requesting that all absentee ballot envelopes with different ink set aside for observation.
Board response: We will grant this request.
Requesting that all absentee ballot logs are available, that they include all absentee applications (i.e., online requests) and set aside for observation.
Board response: All absentee ballot logs are available and will be set aside for observation. We will be generating electronically a report that identifies all requested absentee ballot applications and how they were mailed.
Requesting that all absentee envelopes and applications that identify indefinitely confined voters set aside for observation.
Board response: In most instances, we believe this has already occurred. The envelopes should indicate whether a voter is indefinitely confined, or not based upon the label generated by the municipal clerks. Even if that’s not sufficient, we will be producing an entire list of all Milwaukee County absentee voters, which will indicated whether those voters are regular or indefinitely confined.
Requesting that all copies or other evidence of all photo identification for any absentee ballot identification set aside for observation.
Board response: We do not have possession, or control of these records. These records are more properly subject to open records request to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Those records are not part of the recount.
Requesting that all data for all the tabulating machines and all images of the ballots be preserved today and available for observation. And, that any and all audit trails and/or error trails from tabulating machines from Nov 2-5, 2020 be made available for observation, as well as the names of any technicians that performed any of this work or updates during Nov 2-5, 2020.
Board response: Tabulating of machine data can and will be produced. There are no documents responsive to the second part of this request.
Milwaukee County’s recount reconvenes at 9 a.m. Saturday and concludes at 5 p.m. The recount in its entirety must be completed by December 1. Dane County begins its recount Saturday. These are the only two counties where President Trump has requested a recount.
The Board of Canvassers reiterated observers cannot touch any ballots or related materials.