More than two-thirds of the counties in Wisconsin have submitted official election results after completing their canvasses.
The largest counties in the state including Milwaukee, Dane and Waukesha are still in the audit process, but more than 50 other counties have finished their canvasses. Altogether, the reporting counties show a small gain in votes for Joe Biden and a loss of about a few hundred votes for President Trump.
The state’s largest county wrapped up its first week of canvassing inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse, but Milwaukee County Elections Director Julietta Henry expects their audit to take a few more days.
“The city of Milwaukee for example, there were 16 provisional votes that will be added to the count,” Henry said.
As of Thursday, 56 of the state’s 72 counties had completed their canvasses. When you add up all of their totals, Biden gained 118 votes and President Trump lost 5 votes compared to the unofficial results for the state.
President Trump took a hit from an error in Shawano County, losing 274 votes. The county’s audit found a poll worker mistakenly mixed up the unofficial totals.
Price County’s canvass found a similar error, reporting 100 votes too many for Biden on election night.
Sheboygan County’s canvass removed a small number of votes from both candidates. The Sheboygan County Clerk said this was also another poll worker mistake in reporting the unofficial totals.
Henry said this is why counties canvass, to double-check that each legal vote is counted.
“There’s nothing substantiating voter fraud in Wisconsin,” Henry said.
Every county in Wisconsin is required to send their final canvassing results to the state’s elections commission by next Tuesday, Nov. 17. Henry said Milwaukee County canvassers will likely have to work up until the deadline.