Trump Asks For A Wisconsin Recount Though It’s Unlikely To Change The Outcome

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People gather with signs that read «Voters Decide at the Civic Center Park while waiting for the results of election in Kenosha, Wis. on Wednesday.

Wong Maye-E/AP

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Election workers in Milwaukee seen feeding absentee ballots into tabulating machines late Tuesday night. The state’s 10 electoral votes were awarded to Democrat Joe Biden. But the Trump campaign signaled they will call for a recount.

David Schaper/NPR

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Crates full of absentee ballots that were mailed in or placed into secure ballot drop boxes await to be processed by election officials in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

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Crates full of absentee ballots that were mailed in or placed into secure ballot drop boxes await to be processed by election officials in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

David Schaper/NPR

How Wisconsin tallies its ballots

Republicans are raising questions about what they see as late-arriving votes that erased what appeared to be a solid lead for President Trump.

But many are likely to have been some of the earliest ballots cast, as they were absentee ballots mailed in, dropped off at secure ballot boxes, and ballots cast early in-person at polling places in the days and weeks before Election Day.

Under Wisconsin law, those ballots could not be opened and counted until Tuesday.

In many smaller cities and towns, those absentee ballots are tallied at the municipal clerk’s office with the votes cast on Election Day itself.

But in 39 larger communities, including Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and other cities, the votes are tallied at a separate central count facility. The process of tabulating the votes can be long and slow.

Milwaukee for example had almost 170,000 votes that had to be counted this way; statewide some two million voters cast their ballots early, by mail or absentee.

State law prohibits ballots returned after 8 p.m. Tuesday night from being accepted, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last week, so no late ballots were counted, according to Wolfe, the Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator.