Republican group sues to block Wisconsin vote certification

Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Republicans in Wisconsin have filed a lawsuit asking the state's Supreme Court to block the certification of election results claiming that tens of thousands of illegal ballots were cast.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of the Wisconsin Voters Alliance argues there was "a systematic effort" funded by millions of dollars from an non-profit organization tied to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to circumvent Wisconsin absentee voting laws to illegally cast ballots.

President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 20,608 votes over incumbent President Donald Trump, but the court documents state the number of illegal votes cast greatly exceeds that margin.

The court document claims that 156,807 votes are illegal, 96,000 of which for being cast by electors "who avoided Wisconsin Voter ID laws by voting absentee."

It also claims that some 14,400 ballots were "requested in the name of a registered Republican by someone other than that person" and another 12,000 were Republican ballots that weren't counted.

The plaintiffs argue that the election results should be declared void and the choice of the presidential electors should "revert back to the state legislature."

The Republican group previously failed to block the Center for Technology and Civic Life, which is connected to Zuckerberg, from giving five Wisconsin cities $6.3 million to aid election processes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit was filed as a recount was underway in the counties of Dane and Milwaukee ordered by Trump at a cost of $3 million to his campaign.