Wisconsin election official: We shouldn’t water Trump’s ‘plant of baloney’

A Democratic election official in Wisconsin said the state’s elections commission — which agreed to hold a recount in two counties late Wednesday — shouldn’t water President Trump’s “plant of baloney.” 

Board Chair Ann Jacobs said the president’s assertion that election clerks mailed thousands of absentee ballots to voters in the state who didn’t ask for them was “absurd,” “factually bizarre” and a “vague, paranoid conspiracy,” The Associated Press reported. 

“What we ought not be doing is watering that plant of baloney,” she said.

Her comments came after Trump has paid the mandated $3 million required for the recount in the mostly Democratic Milwaukee and Dane counties after President-elect Joe Biden won the state and its 10 electoral votes by 20,608 votes. 

Members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission debated along party lines for six hours before officially ordering the recount, according to the AP. The recounts in both counties will start on Friday and are due by Dec. 1.

The Trump campaign has alleged that there were voting “irregularities” in the counties that Biden won by more than a 2-to-1 margin without presenting evidence of any fraud.

Republican commissioners Dean Knudson and Bob Spindell expressed concern about whether election observers would be treated fairly by Democratic election officials in Milwaukee and Madison, located in Dane County. 

Knudson also questioned the validity of the absentee ballots requested online, although he tweeted a link to the website in August instructing people to “request [an] absentee ballot now,” according to the AP.

Democrats dismissed the Republican worries, noting the absentee system was in effect for years.

Trump has refused to concede to Biden after the Democratic candidate has been widely recognized as the president-elect. The president’s campaign has filed several lawsuits in battleground states contesting the vote and promoting unfounded claims of voter fraud.

In Michigan, Republicans on the Wayne County canvassing board temporarily blocked the certification of the vote claiming irregularities in the majority-Black Detroit vote. After allegations of racism, the board unanimously certified the results, but now the Republicans are attempting to rescind their approval.