The Sconi

The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) did not pass changes to the recount manual at last night’s emergency meeting.

The WEC voted 3-3 regarding the change, meaning the changes would not pass, Matt Batzel, the national executive director of American Majority, tweeted. 

“3-3 votes on Wisconsin Elections Commission mean staff changes to the Recount Manual do not pass,” Batzel said in the tweet.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Andrew Hitt tweeted yesterday that the WEC would be holding the emergency meeting after President Donald Trump petitioned for a recount. 

“BREAKING: WI Elections Commission, after seeing President Trump’s recount petition and objections, is trying to change the recount manual at an emergency meeting tonight at 6 pm to make objections harder to make. This must be stopped,” Hitt tweeted.

The petition for the recount is for Milwaukee and Dane counties. There was also a lawsuit filed by three Wisconsin voters alleging irregularities in Milwaukee, Dane and Monominee counties That lawsuit is seeking for results to be invalidated from those counties. 

Trump filed for the recount on Nov. 18. He paid the required $3 million cost, claiming Dane and Milwaukee counties had the largest number of irregularities. The counties are two of the largest Democratic counties in the state.

The secrecy surrounding the state’s voting machines has also come under fire recently. Especially after it came to light that Jill Stein’s 2016 recount request was still going through the state’s court. 

Stein requested a recount in Wisconsin because the voting machines in the state are mostly unregulated. Four years later, her lawsuit is still sitting in court. She has called the process “anti-voter” because of the state’s election laws.

“[W]hen Stein sought access to the software code used in Wisconsin’s voting machines — something state law permits for recount petitioners — the vendors who made the voting machines waged a protracted legal fight that has left Stein’s computer experts still waiting to see the code, four years later,” Politico reporter Kim Zetter recently reported.