By statute, the recount for Wisconsin's April 5th Supreme Court election was supposed to be completed today, and all but one county is done.
Waukesha County is the only county still counting, and they've been given nearly three more weeks to complete their work courtesy of Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess. The Government Accountability Board (GAB) was in court this morning requesting the deadline extension. Judge Niess granted the request while declining to order any changes that might speed up the process, saying he would leave that up to elections officials. The new deadline is May 26th.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a nice photo gallery of today's proceedings in Waukesha. Even in the still photos I can sense the same frantic yet disorganized nature of the Waukesha County recount that I've witnessed consistently via their livestream. They still don't seem to be able to get into a rhythm.
When it was thought that JoAnne Kloppenburg had won the election (before the delayed reporting of 14,000 votes from Brookfield in Waukesha County), the attorneys for incumbent David Prosser were all geared up to request a recount for their man. The right-wing noise machine was throwing out baseless accusations of voter fraud in Milwaukee and Dane Counties within minutes of the Associated Press showing Kloppenburg with a slim lead.
Curiously, after Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced at a press conference that she had forgotten to add the Brookfield votes to her tally, the right-wing imaginary-voter-fraud brigade went completely silent.
So, what about Dane and Milwaukee? Not much news, really. Dane County added 112 votes, mostly from absentee ballots. 93 of the votes went to Kloppenburg and 19 went to Prosser, giving Kloppenburg a net gain of 74 votes.
Milwaukee County added 26 votes for Prosser and 66 votes for Kloppenburg for a net change of 40 votes.
Overall, Kloppenburg has closed the gap by a net 337 votes with only Waukesha County left to verify and certify. The current GAB spreadsheet is here.
So, barring another total breakdown in Waukesha (and I'm not ruling that out), it appears that Prosser will eventually end up with the most votes in the recount. Prosser's attorneys, however, have expressed concern that the slow count and possible legal appeals from the JoAnne Kloppenburg campaign after the recount could delay the final declaration of a winner for several months.
Prosser's current term expires July 31st. If a winner of the April 5th election is not declared before then, the seat would become vacant on August 1st. Currently, Wisconsin's Supreme Court is split 4-3 in favor of conservatives on most decisions. A vacant seat would split the court evenly until a final winner is declared and seated.
Waukesha did make some changes in their recount process today. They moved to a larger room and are now counting two wards simultaneously. They have also repositioned their webcam in relation to the board of canvassers' table, making it harder to see the ballot bags.
So...we wait for Waukesha. Again.
Here are the latest posts from the GAB website regarding the recount:
5:45 p.m.
Posted: May 9, 2011 - 5:51pm
Today's updated spreadsheet with unofficial results has now been posted.
Starting on Tuesday, we will have one update per day since only Waukesha County is still recounting ballots. The spreadsheet should be posted by noon each day.
5 p.m. Update
Posted: May 9, 2011 - 4:56pm
As of shortly before 5 p.m. Monday, 70 counties are now certified, with one (Sauk) verified (meaning information has been submitted to the G.A.B., but has not yet been certified). Waukesha County is still in process.
Anybody heard any good jokes lately?