MADISON, Wis. (AP) – President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Wisconsin seeking to disqualify hundreds of thousands of ballots in a longshot attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state he lost by nearly 20,700 votes.
Trump filed the day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission certified Biden as the winner of the state’s 10 Electoral College votes. Trump asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court, controlled 4-3 by conservatives, to take the case directly, rather than have it start in a lower court.
The state’s highest court also is considering whether to hear two other lawsuits filed by conservatives seeking to invalidate ballots cast during the presidential election.
Trump repeats many of the claims he made without evidence during a recount of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties that large swaths of absentee votes were illegally cast. Local officials rejected his claims during the recount, and Trump is challenging procedures that have been in place for years and never been found to be illegal.
Evers and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Trump’s lawsuit.
