(The Center Square) – U.S. senatorial candidate Eric Hovde posted a statement on Tuesday saying that he has not decided if he will ask for a recount and has intentionally not commented on his race with incumbent Tammy Baldwin, which was declared a victory for Baldwin last Wednesday.
Baldwin has 49.38% of the vote compared to Hovde’s 48.52%, according to unofficial totals. Once the full canvas is complete and the results are sent to the Wisconsin Election Commission, Hovde will have three days to ask for a recount.
If the race is within 1%, Hovde would automatically qualify and would not have to pay for a recount.
Hovde’s statement pointed to issues he had with the election results, including third-party candidate Thomas Leager, who received 28,717 votes in the race. Leager was found to have been funded by Democratic firms and donors despite saying that he was recruited to run by the Patriots Run Project.
Hovde said that he was receiving calls of congratulations early last Wednesday morning before absentee voting results came in from 108,325 absentee voters, both in-person and mail-in votes. Baldwin received nearly 90% of the votes from those ballots, Hovde said.
“Statistically, this outcome seems improbably as it didn’t match the patterns from same-day voting in Milwaukee, where I received 22% of the votes,” Hovde said.
He acknowledged that seeking a recount would be a serious ask and that recounts are limited to tallying votes without looking at the integrity of the entire election process.
Hovde said there were abnormalities where some Milwaukee precincts saw 150% to 200% of the registered voters vote in the election.
Voters were allowed to register up to and including Election Day across the state.
“Like many of my supporters, I was shocked about what unfolded on Election Day,” Hovde said.