Donald Trump is going to have to cough up a big bag if he wants a ballot recount in Wisconsin.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Trump campaign will have to pay almost $8 million if they want the ballots to be recounted in the state he narrowly lost to President-elect Joe Biden in. He will have to make his final decision by Wednesday (Nov. 18). If they pay the $7.9 million up front, the recount will begin to take place as soon as Thursday (Nov. 19) and must be completed by Dec. 1, per the Elections Commission.
Back in 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein only had to pay $2 million for a recount in Wisconsin. The cost of the recount has quadrupled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to Meagan Wolfe, the director of the Elections Commission. Several counties had to rent large halls so that election officials could count ballots while following COVID-19 guidelines. The short turnaround time and an increase in security have also drawn the recount costs up this year.
After Biden was announced as the projected winner of the 2020 Presidential Election, Trump started fundraising to help aid his many legal cases in several states.
“We still have not received any indication that there will or will not be a recount,” Wolfe said in a statement. “But we want Wisconsin’s voters to know we are ready.”
On Nov. 4, Trump’s campaign announced that they wanted a recount in the Badger State. Campaign manager Bill Stepien released a statement about the campaign’s plans, citing “irregularities” in the state’s voting results. “Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be,” the statement read. “There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The president is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”