The Trump campaign on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in the Wisconsin Supreme Court that challenges the results of the Nov. 3 election and cited “fraud and abuse” at the polls.
In the lawsuit, President Trump’s lawyers said the recent recount of the ballots in Wisconsin “uncover fraud and abuse that irrefutably altered the outcome of this election.”
The recount, conducted at the request of the Trump campaign, was completed Sunday and showed presumed President-elect Joseph R. Biden on top by 20,700 votes.
The state certified the results Monday.
However, the Trump campaign lawsuit said four cases of unlawful conduct in the election affected an estimated 221,000 ballots — enough to change the outcome.
“We know with absolute certainty illegal ballots have unduly influenced the state’s election results. Wisconsin cannot allow the over three million legal ballots to be eroded by even a single illegal ballot,” said Trump campaign lawyer Jim Troupis. “We will continue fighting on behalf of the American people to defend their right to a free and fair election by helping to restore integrity and transparency in our elections.”
Mr. Trump and his allies also challenged the election results in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. But the court cases all have been either withdrawn or dismissed.
The new lawsuit said the misconduct in Wisconsin included illegal orders from state election officials and mishandling of ballots by municipal election officials in Milwaukee and Madison.
Wisconsin Elections Commission directed municipal clerks to illegally alter incomplete absentee ballot envelopes contrary to Wisconsin law, according to the campaign.
It said clerks were instructed that they could rely on their own “personal knowledge” or unspecified “lists or databases at his or her disposal” to add in missing information on returned absentee ballots.
Under Wisconsin law, incomplete absentee ballots must be corrected by the voter or else the ballot is disqualified.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers said municipal clerks also issued absentee ballots to voters without requiring the mandatory application, which violates the state’s safeguards for absentee voting.
Clerks in Madison and Milwaukee issued thousands of absentee ballots without collecting a written application during the two-week in-person absentee voting period that began Oct. 20, the lawyers said.
More than 20,000 voters in Madison and Milwaukee received absentee ballots without providing the required ID. Those absentee ballots also were only supposed to be provided to voters unable to get to vote in person because they are physically ill, infirm, elderly or disabled, according to the campaign.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers said those ballots should be thrown out.
They also said the city of Madison created unlawful polling stations at more than 200 parks and other city locations as part of “Democracy in the Park” voting events. The events, according to the campaign, were held outside of the county’s approved polling locations and did not follow the state’s strict absentee voting requirements.
The lead lawyer on the Trump legal team, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, said the election lawsuits aim to protect American voters.
“As we have said from the very beginning of this process, we want all legal votes and only legal votes to be counted,” he said. “Americans must be able to trust in our election results, and we not stop until we can ensure voters once again have faith in our electoral process.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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