COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTION: Check this out if you're going to be in or near Madison this Saturday, April 30th!
A note on the web site of Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (GAB) says the following:
As of 8:09 pm on April, 27,2011: 502 out of 3602 Reporting Units have provided unofficial recount results to the G.A.B.
It's on the page dedicated exclusively to the recount of the April 5th Supreme Court race between challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg and incumbent David Prosser. The GAB has so far done a good job of keeping the recount process as open as possible and providing timely updates. They even post answers to questions that have come from canvassers and local elected officials from across the state.
For example:
QUESTION: Were military voters provided an extension for the Spring Election?
ANSWER: No, State law only provides an extension for military voters during the Partisan Primary and General Election, so there was no extension for the receipt of ballots cast by military voters in the Spring Election. Also, because there was no federal office on the ballot, the provisions of the Military Overseas Voter Empowerment Act do not apply.
Not earth-shattering, but good to know.
The GAB is requiring daily reports from all the counties in Wisconsin and they add those numbers to a spreadsheet that is updated a few times daily and made available on the web site. It's a bit confusing to look at the totals on the bottom to see who has gained or lost, because the totals from the original count are pre-filled in their respective columns. The recount totals are added as they come in, otherwise they show zeroes. Nevertheless, I have attempted to filter for only those precincts that have reported and here's what I come up with after Day 1:
Kloppenburg has gained 279 votes compared to the original totals.
This "gain", however, is almost meaningless at this point in the recount, and the GAB spreadsheet clearly indicates these are unofficial numbers.
Most importantly, I don't know if a precinct is reported only when it is completed or if the recount total indicates where they were when they stopped counting for the day. I also don't know if any challenged ballots have already been resolved and included. If not, one would expect the total votes for Supreme Court for that precinct to be lower than the original total.
Most differences in the totals are very small, as one would hope, but there are a couple odd lines in the spreadsheet where the total recounted votes for Supreme Court is quite a bit higher than the original total.
Most striking of these is line 74 for Barron County, TOWN OF SUMNER Wards 1 & 2. The recount shows 653 total votes for Supreme Court, compared to 145 in the original canvass. Kloppenburg won 79 to 66 in the original count, but the recount shows her winning those wards 354 to 299. I have to assume the recount total is wrong on the spreadsheet, since the county website shows that 402 people voted in that ward in the 2008 Presidential election.
Another interesting gain in total votes cast was in Bayfield County, CITY OF WASHBURN Wards 1 - 4. there were 60 additional votes tallied in the recount, all of them going to Kloppenburg. She won in the original count 636 to 151, and is shown winning in the recount 696 to 151.
Again, this is early and the numbers are unofficial, but I'll be looking at those 2 lines when the official recount totals are revealed.
The largest loss of total Supreme Court votes is in record number 2956, TOWN OF SHEBOYGAN Wards 1 - 4. It shows 691 fewer votes for Supreme Court in the recount than in the original canvass. Again, this could simply mean they called it a day before finishing all the wards in that precinct. If so, that difference should narrow by tomorrow night.
It will likely be a few days before we see any trends. The best news to come out of this would be that the election was fair, the vote tallies were accurate, and any differences in totals were unintentional and fixable. I want Kloppenburg to win, but in the long term I want my clean Wisconsin government back.