MILWAUKEE — President Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a lawsuit in the Wisconsin recount that secured president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state.
The Trump campaign filed the lawsuit Tuesday morning to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, claiming abuse of absentee voting and illegal activity that affected roughly 220,000 ballots.
Biden’s victory in battleground Wisconsin was certified Monday following a partial recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties that only added to his 20,600-vote margin over Trump. Gov. Tony Evers signed a certificate that completed the process to give the Democrat the state's 10 Electoral College votes, following the recount approved by the chairwoman of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The lawsuit claims absentee ballots in the two counties were issued to voters without filling out required submission forms and they should be excluded from the final recount results. It also claims that clerks were “illegally altering ballot envelopes themselves” and fixing errors.
Per the lawsuit, the Milwaukee and Madison city clerks and WEC officials “willfully disregarded the current statute and made conscious efforts to circumvent Wisconsin election law.”
The lawsuit claims Evers, the city and county clerks, and WEC officials as the defendants. It additionally alleges that absentee voters were “fraudulently allowed by election officials” to cast their ballots.
“[...] The privilege of voting by absentee ballot must be carefully regulated to prevent the potential for fraud or abuse,” the lawsuit states.
Trump’s campaign is asking the state’s Supreme Court to block the certification of the recount unless the affected absentee ballots are excluded from the final election results.
The state's highest court also is considering whether to hear two other lawsuits filed by conservatives seeking to invalidate ballots.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.