MADISON, Wis. – Donald Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien says the president plans to “immediately” request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin, which has been called for Joe Biden.
With 95% reporting, the Associated Press said Wednesday afternoon that it projects the former vice president will pick up the state’s 10 electoral votes.
The AP says it called the state for Biden after election officials in the state said all outstanding ballots had been counted, except for a few hundred in one township and they expected only a small number of provisional ballots.
In Wisconsin, if a race is within 1 percentage point, the trailing candidate can force a recount. Statewide recounts in Wisconsin have historically changed the vote tally by only a few hundred votes. Biden leads by .624 percentage points out of nearly 3.3 million ballots counted.
Stepien said in a statement Wednesday: “The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
Read Stepien’s full statement obtained by WTMJ:
“Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be. There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
By winning the state, Biden reclaims a key part of the so-called “blue wall” that slipped away from Democrats in 2016.
Four years ago, Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes, a breakthrough that along with wins in Michigan and Pennsylvania helped hand him his first term in the White House. Democrats were determined to reclaim Wisconsin, a state that before Trump hadn’t gone for a Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
In the race to the 270 electoral votes needed to win, Biden has 264 while Trump has 214.