(The Center Square) – U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde conceded his election to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Monday and said that he won’t ask for a recount.
The Republican challenger said a recount of the same ballots would not lead to a different result because that recount would not include a review of ballots and their legitimacy, which would be difficult to obtain through the court system.
“The results from Election Night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last-minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m., flipping the outcome,” Hovde said.
Hovde was referring to the 108,325 absentee ballots, both in person and mail-in, which were counted at Milwaukee’s central processing center and then added to the vote count in the early morning of Nov. 6.
Hovde previously noted that nearly 90% of those votes went for Baldwin.
He also noted that several Milwaukee-area precincts had more than 100% turnout compared to registered voter counts heading into Election Day. That can occur due to same-day registrations, which are allowed in Wisconsin.
Oak Park Clerk Catherine Roeske told Fox 6 that happened in several Oak Park precincts due to a high number of same-day voter registrations on Nov. 5.
“People aren’t wrong,” Roeske told the station. “That is a fact. We had our 100% turnout based on our amount of registered voters at the start of Election Day.”
The Wisconsin Elections Commission added a fact-checking note to its website explaining the turnout, saying “large influxes of registered voters in certain wards or reporting units is a common occurrence, typically arising when a new apartment building or other multi-unit housing is built.”
