As his campaign's court challenges fail, Trump seeks partial recount in Wisconsin in bid to reverse election

U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election campaign said on Wednesday it was seeking a partial recount of Wisconsin's presidential election results as part of its long-shot attempt to reverse president-elect Joe Biden's victory.

The president is also clinging to hope that a manual recount ordered by the state of Georgia can erase Biden's 14,000-vote lead there and is also challenging results in the swing state of Michigan.

But election officials in Georgia said a soon-to-be-completed recount was not likely to change Biden's victory there. They also said the recount would not provide evidence for Trump's unsupported claims of widespread fraud.

"He's been misinformed on that front," Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system manager, told reporters.

Election officials in Wisconsin likewise said that a partial recount requested by the Trump campaign would not reverse the Republican incumbent's loss in that state, which he won in 2016.

While staying out of the public eye, Trump has persisted in venting his anger on Twitter, where he has made numerous claims of election fraud to try to explain his loss, unsupported by evidence and demonstrably untrue.

His election-related lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan have met with little courtroom success.

Biden has warned that the continued delay in recognizing him as winner could mean the United States will be "behind by weeks and months" in the preparations to distribute a coronavirus vaccine.

Opinion polls show Trump's unfounded claims about the election having been "rigged" have a political benefit, with as many as half of Trump's fellow Republicans believing them, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Arizona's top election official, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said she faced escalating threats of violence and blamed Trump for spreading misinformation to undermine trust in the results.

The president is holding out hope that a manual recount ordered by Georgia can erase Biden's lead there. The state's top election official said that was unlikely.

"I don't believe at the end of the day it'll change the total results," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, told CNN.

As of Wednesday morning, Biden's lead over Trump had fallen to 12,781 ballots, down from 14,156 previously, according to Sterling, the state voting system manager. Sterling said he expected the recount to be completed by midnight ET on Wednesday and certified by the state on Friday.

In Wisconsin, the state Elections Commission said it would oversee recounts in two heavily Democratic counties — Milwaukee and Dane, which includes Madison — after the Trump campaign paid $3 million US, less than the $7.9 million estimated cost of a statewide recount.

Biden won Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes to lead Trump 49.5 per cent to 48.8 per cent.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said a recount would start on Friday and finish within days. Only a few hundred votes changed in the county's recount after the 2016 presidential election, he said.

In the state-by-state electoral college that determines the overall election winner, Biden captured 306 votes to the Republican Trump's 232. He won the popular vote by more than 5.8 million.

To remain in office, Trump would need to overturn results in at least three states to reach the threshold of 270 electoral votes. That would be unprecedented.

Challenge in Michigan

Trump is also challenging results in Michigan, falsely claiming that the number of votes counted in heavily Democratic Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, had surpassed the number of residents.

"In Detroit, there are FAR MORE VOTES THAN PEOPLE. Nothing can be done to cure that giant scam. I win Michigan!" he tweeted.

City records show that 250,138 votes were cast in Detroit in the presidential election. That is a little more than a third of the city's population, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau is 670,031.

In Pennsylvania, Trump's campaign sought to reintroduce claims to a lawsuit it dropped three days ago that alleged that Republican observers were not allowed to watch ballot counting. Lawyers said they had dropped the claims because of miscommunication.

Earlier in the day, the state Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal in a separate case challenging thousands of mail-in votes in Philadelphia.

Delayed transition could delay COVID-19 response

Trump's refusal to concede the Nov. 3 election is blocking the smooth transition to a new administration and complicating Biden's response to the coronavirus pandemic when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Biden on Wednesday held a virtual meeting with frontline health-care workers in Delaware who complained about a lack of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 tests for themselves.

He warned that the delay in declaring him the election winner could mean that "soon we're going to be behind by weeks or months being able to put together the whole initiative" to distribute coronavirus vaccines when they become available.

The General Services Administration agency, run by a Trump appointee, has yet to formally declare an election winner. Biden's team says this is hindering co-ordination with the current White House coronavirus task force.

States face a Dec. 8 deadline to certify election results in time for the official electoral college vote on Dec. 14.

Congress is scheduled to count the electoral college votes on Jan. 6, which is normally a formality. But Trump supporters in the Senate and House of Representatives could object to the results in a final, long-shot attempt to deprive Biden of 270 electoral votes and turn the final decision over to the House.

Election officials from both parties around the United States, have said there was no evidence of vote tampering, and a federal review drew the same conclusion.