The official county canvassing of votes in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is complete, the Associated Press reports — with incumbent conservative Justice David Prosser leading his liberal-backed challenger, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, by 7,316 votes out of nearly 1.5 million. But that’s no guarantee that the race is over.
Prosser’s current margin is still just within the 0.5% margin that would entitle Kloppenburg to request a recount at state and local government expense — as the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees, elections notes in its press release, the current margin is 0.488% — a decision that she has three business days to decide upon, before the state will officially certify the results.
The Kloppenburg campaign released this statement from campaign manager Melissa Mulliken:
Now that the statewide canvass is complete, our campaign will focus our decision making on whether to request a recount. By statute, we have three business days in which to make that decision. We will review the information available to us and carefully weigh the options. We will make an announcement concerning our decision no later than Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
And given some of the turns that have already taken place in this election, few would be surprised to see a recount actually happen.
Early on, Prosser was expected to win re-election easily, given the advantages of incumbency in terms of fundraising, name recognition, and the organizational backing of the state business establishment and Republican Party in the nominally non-partisan race. However, the widespread protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation quickly turned the election into a proxy political battle, and unions brought a late but very energetic effort on Kloppenburg’s behalf.
On Wednesday of last week, Kloppenburg declared victory on the basis of Associated Press figures showing 100% of precincts reported, with Kloppenburg enjoying the very narrow lead of 204 votes out of nearly 1.5 million. Then that Thursday, as counties were conducting the official canvass to check for errors in their election night spreadsheets that were reported to the media, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R) announced the discovery of un-tabulated votes in the city of Brookfield — giving Prosser a net gain of over 7,000 — saying that her own error had resulted in them not being properly imported and saved into the county’s database.
“I’m thankful that this error was caught early in the process and during the canvass,” Nickolaus said at the press conference announcing the error.
Since then, Democrats have been crying foul about the race — and also raising doubts about past election results in the county. For her part, Nickolaus has responded to the criticism, saying she will not resign: “I will serve the remainder of my term. I understand why people are upset and I am taking this matter seriously. Again, I am sorry for my mistake.”
This post has been edited from the original.
