County clerks around the state have until tonight to finish their recount of Wisconsin’s presidential ballots.
Most have already wrapped up a second count of their ballots, and Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Mike Haas says those left expect to be done on time. “I’m really pleased and proud of the way county and municipal clerks, and the board of canvassers, and the tabulators, how professionally they’ve handled this entire process,” he says.
Haas says the process has been a huge inconvenience for clerks, but it has also shown mistakes were made. While the recount has shown Republican President-elect Donald Trump still won the state by about 22,000 votes, the recount did reveals several hundred ballots that were miscounted on election night. “It just points to the constant need and the constant challenge of training clerks…to do everything exactly right, every election,” Haas says.
Clerks must submit their results to the state by 8 p.m. and the WEC will certify the results on Tuesday, the same day as a federal deadline to do so. Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes will be cast next week.