“In a surreal twist, the lawyer leading Donald Trump’s Wisconsin election battle is seeking to throw out thousands of “illegal” votes, including his wife’s and his own, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Attorney Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge, voted early and in person, which is one of a number of classes of votes Troupis and the Trump campaign have argued is illegal. Both his name and his wife’s were on a list of voters whose ballots Troupis wants to be tossed out in an exhibit he submitted Sunday to the Dane County Board of Canvassers, according to records obtained by the Journal-Sentinel. “I’m sure I’m on that list,” Troupis told the newspaper. He refused to say why he voted the way he did if he was convinced it was illegal. Trump demanded a recount in the state’s two most heavily Democratic counties: Dane, which includes Madison, and Milwaukee County. The recount began Friday and will end sometime after the Thanksgiving holiday, according to officials. In-person early ballots were tabulated as part of a recount in 2016 when Trump won the state by some 23,000 votes. Joe Biden won Wisconsin by 20,600 votes. The recount has so far turned up few changes in the vote total, The Associated Press reported. All votes Troupis challenged are being recounted. But his exhibits are expected to be used in a legal challenge, the Journal noted. Diane Welsh, an attorney for Biden’s campaign, objected to the exhibits filings in the middle of a recount. “This is not a litigation prep session; this is a recount,” she said. The Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the presidential election results have failed to make any headway. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out Trump’s bid to block votes on Monday. That followed a scathing ruling Saturday from a federal judge who lashed the Trump campaign’s “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” seeking to overturn results in the state. Michigan certified its votes, which backed Biden, on Monday, despite pressure from Trump to hold off while he pushed the state legislature to use electors to decide the race regardless of voters’ wishes.
