Here's what would happen during a Wisconsin recount

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is the projected winner of Wisconsin, but with only 21,000 or so votes currently separating him from President Trump — a lead of about 0.6 percentage points — the Trump campaign has said it will file for a recount of the ballots.

Under Wisconsin state law, The Washington Post explains, if the margin between two candidates is less than 0.25 percent, the state will automatically hold a recount and pay for it. If the margin is less than 1 percent, the candidate can ask for a recount, but their campaign has to foot the bill. In 2016, when Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes, Green Party nominee Jill Stein paid almost $3.5 million for a full state recount.

Counties in Wisconsin have until Nov. 17 to tally the results and submit them to the state. A candidate has until 5 p.m. on the first business day after the state received the final results from all 72 counties to request a recount. Once the Wisconsin Elections Commission okays the recount, it must start by 9 a.m. on the third day after it was ordered.

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Counties receive checklists and instructions — put some ballots through machine tabulators and count others by hand, for example — and have 13 days to finish the recount. Winnebago Deputy Clerk Julie Barthels told the Post that in 2016, her county had to recount more than 84,000 ballots by hand, and there were 40 people working on the task at once. "It went very smoothly, and we are hoping this one will be the same," she said.

It isn't likely a recount of the votes would significantly change the state of the race in Wisconsin, experts said, and the Post notes that in 2016, Hillary Clinton gained 713 votes in the recount and Trump received 844 more, slightly expanding his margin of victory.