Racine County Reserve Judge Stephen Simanek affirmed the Dane and Milwaukee counties' recounts when he handed down a ruling on Friday.
Simanek said at the hearing that he wouldn’t strike ballots on an inference.
"The bottom line here is that the court should do everything to ensure that the will of the voters prevails," Simanek said during Friday’s ruling. "The certification of the results of the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election after the Dane County and Milwaukee County recounts is affirmed."
Simanek noted that fraud wasn’t widespread in the election.
"There is no credible evidence of any misconduct or a wide scale fraud at issue here," Simanek said.
Simanek also said COVID-19 caused the number of absentee ballots to soar.
"To infer that people utilized and voted under that section to evade the voter ID requirements is no basis for not counting those votes," Simanek said. "It's far more likely because of the ongoing pandemic that people were very concerned, especially those with compromised systems, to go out in public, to not want to stand in line for potentially hours at a polling place in order to cast a ballot."
Simanek also said the allegations against the ballots were not factually supported.
"I certainly could not strike those ballots based on an inference which is not really supported … in fact," Simanek said.
After striking down the case, President Donald Trump’s campaign appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) reported that the case will be heard by the state Supreme Court Saturday afternoon.
The state Supreme Court does not usually hold court on Saturdays, but is doing so due to the time-sensitive matter. They will hear oral arguments at noon in the matter.
Presidential electors are supposed to meet on Monday to cast their votes, WPR reported.
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