Trump campaign will pay $3 million for a seemingly hopeless recount in 2 Wisconsin counties

President Trump's campaign is spending $3 million on a recount that won't change his fate.

Trump's campaign shifted from requesting a full recount in Wisconsin to paying for a recount in just Milwaukee and Dane counties on Wednesday. The Trump campaign said it chose those counties as they were home to the "worst irregularities" in the vote count, though there's no evidence that's true.

Even before President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Trump and his campaign began launching legal challenges and demanding recounts across states Biden won. That included Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016 but Biden flipped by more than 20,000 votes this time around. A good portion of Biden's majority came from the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane counties, home to Milwaukee and Madison, respectively.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Trump campaign claims those counties were home to "illegally altered absentee ballots, illegally issued absentee ballots, and illegal advice given by government officials allowing Wisconsin’s Voter ID laws to be circumvented." State and local elections officials say there's no sign of the widespread fraud Trump's team is alleging. Trump's campaign is more likely zeroing on these counties because they contain a big chunk of the state's votes, went significantly for Biden this year, and are home to most of the state's Black voters.

Trump needs to flip more than 20,000 votes to put Wisconsin in his favor — a number a recount has never seen before. But even without Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes, Biden still has more than the 270 votes he needs to win the election.