Across the United States, voters of all parties are holding their breath, waiting to see who will be the next president. (While it will be some time before we know for sure who will be elected (opens in new tab) due to record high voter turnout and a surge in mail-in ballots, polls are predicting (opens in new tab) close races, especially in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona. (Open new tab). Also of note is Wisconsin: Wisconsin is a swing state that has historically been a tough campaign battle. Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by just under 23,000 votes, becoming the first Republican nominee in decades.

A flood of mail-in and absentee ballots this year has slowed the counting of all votes. In Wisconsin (and Pennsylvania, another important swing state), the counting process has been delayed because Congress has prohibited election officials from counting mail ballots until Election Day. But as of noon Wednesday, according to the official Wisconsin election Twitter feed (opens in new tab), nearly all the votes in Wisconsin have been counted, with the Associated Press reporting that Joe Biden has 1,630,389 votes, 0.6% ahead of Trump and 10 of the Democratic candidate's crucial electoral college votes and projected to be the winner (open in new tab).

Shortly thereafter, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien issued a statement saying that he would "immediately" call for a recount in the state. Here is how he did it.

According to Ballotpedia (opens in new tab), there is no automatic recount in Wisconsin. (Some states, like Pennsylvania, have an automatic recount if it is close.)

Yes. In Wisconsin, an adverse party (Trump in this situation) is entitled to request a full or partial recount if the difference is less than 1%.

According to state law (opens in new tab), in a presidential election, a petition for a recount must be filed "by 5:00 p.m. on the business day following the day the Commission receives the last statement from the County Board of Inquiry on the election, after the Commission has conducted a hearing on all valid provisional ballots." In other words, by 5 p.m. on the first business day after the final full results are officially announced (which, just to be clear, have not been announced as of press time). Election officials will then recount the votes in the state for accuracy.

After a petition is filed, officials will conduct a recount within 13 days. If the results are again disputed, Trump will appeal to the Circuit Court within five business days. The case will ultimately be heard by a judge without a jury. (Trump has threatened to take the entire election to the Supreme Court if he loses.)

It depends. If the vote difference is greater than 0.25% of the total votes cast, the party requesting the recount pays the cost of the recount. If the vote difference is less than 0.25%, the state processes the bill. In this case, the Trump campaign received 0.15%

yes. In fact, in 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a recount, which ended up changing the outcome by only 163 votes to Trump. This is one of the reasons why Wisconsin has tightened its restrictions and rules regarding recounts.

Perhaps. There will be hotly contested races in key battleground states that are closely contested. Recount requests are expected in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, and North Carolina.

Let's stay put. Just because the tally is slow does not mean that things are going one way or that the system is flawed. As Stacey Abrams says, "What matters most is not the speed of the tally, but that every voter's vote is counted. " (open in new tab)