Wisconsin Elections Commission Receives Two Presidential Election Recount Petitions

Date: November 25, 2016

MADISON, WI – The Wisconsin Elections Commission today received two recount petitions from the Jill Stein for President Campaign and from Rocky Roque De La Fuente, Administrator Michael Haas announced.

“The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Haas said.

“We have assembled an internal team to direct the recount, we have been in close consultation with our county clerk partners, and have arranged for legal representation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice,” Haas said. “We plan to hold a teleconference meeting for county clerks next week and anticipate the recount will begin late in the week after the Stein campaign has paid the recount fee, which we are still calculating.”

The last statewide recount was of the Supreme Court election in 2011. At that time, the Associated Press surveyed county clerks and reported that costs to the counties exceeded $520,000, though several counties did not respond to the AP’s survey. That election had 1.5 million votes, and Haas said the Commission expects the costs to be higher for an election with 2.975 million votes. “The Commission is in the process of obtaining cost estimates from county clerks so that we can calculate the fee which the campaigns will need to pay before the recount can start,” Haas said. The Commission will need to determine how the recount costs will be assessed to the campaigns.

The state is working under a federal deadline of December 13 to complete the recount. As a result, county boards of canvassers may need to work evenings and weekends to meet the deadlines. “The recount process is very detail-oriented, and this deadline will certainly challenge some counties to finish on time,” Haas said.

A recount is different than an audit and is more rigorous, Haas explained. More than 100 reporting units across the state were randomly selected for a separate audit of their voting equipment as required by state law, and that process has already begun. Electronic voting equipment audits determine whether all properly-marked ballots are accurately tabulated by the equipment. In a recount, all ballots (including those that were originally hand counted) are examined to determine voter intent before being retabulated. In addition, the county boards of canvassers will examine other documents, including poll lists, written absentee applications, rejected absentee ballots, and provisional ballots before counting the votes.

Haas noted that the Commission’s role is to order the recount, to provide legal guidance to the counties during the recount, and to certify the results. If the candidates disagree with the results of the recount, the law gives them the right to appeal in circuit court within five business days after the recount is completed. The circuit court is where issues are resolved that may be discovered during the recount but are not resolved to the satisfaction of the candidates.

“Wisconsin has the most decentralized election system in the United States,” Haas said. “The system has strong local control coupled with state oversight, resting on the partnership between the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the 72 county clerks, and the 1,854 municipal clerks. State law clearly gives each county’s Board of Canvassers the primary authority to conduct the recount, and to decide which ballots should and should not be counted. Recounting votes is an open, transparent process in which each of the candidates may have representatives present to raise objections, and where the public may be present to observe.”

Official results from all 72 counties indicate the presidential candidates received the following vote totals:


Total Votes Cast 2,975,313


Donald J. Trump 1,404,000

Hillary Clinton 1,381,823

Darrell L. Castle 12,156

Gary Johnson 106,585

Jill Stein 31,006

Monica Moorehead 1,769

Rocky Roque De La Fuente 1,514

Cherunda Fox (write-in) 44

Evan McMullin (write-in) 9,998

Michael A. Maturen (write-in) 243

Marshall Schoenke (write-in) 3

Chris Keniston (write-in) 58

Laurence Kotlikoff (write-in)15

Tom Hoefling (write-in) 68

Joseph Maldonado (write-in) 3

Emidio Soltysik (write-in) 26

Scattering (unregistered write-in candidates) 26,002



A spreadsheet containing ward-by-ward results of the county canvasses will be attached to this news release soon.

Also today, the Commission today ordered a recount in the election for State Senate District 32 in Western Wisconsin, where Dan Kapanke received 43,514 votes, Jennifer Shilling received 43,570 votes and Chip DeNure received 2,093 votes. That recount will begin on Monday. Because the margin between the top two is less than .25 percent, there is no cost to the candidates for the state Senate recount.

County clerks in Crawford, La Crosse, Monroe and Vernon counties will be posting public meeting notices for dates and times the boards of canvass will meet for the State Senate recount. Haas said it is possible that some of the work for that recount, such as reviewing poll books and absentee ballot envelopes, will not need to be repeated when those counties conduct their presidential recount.

The Commission expects to hold a news conference on Monday to discuss more definite timelines and procedures related to the recount. Time and location information will be announced Monday morning.

Wisconsin’s Recount Manual and comprehensive information about past recounts, including the last statewide recount in the 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, are available here: http://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/recount.

A copy of the Stein campaign’s petition will be attached soon.



For more information, contact:
Reid Magney, 608-267-7887, reid.magney@wi.gov

http://elections.wi.gov/node/4436