In a stunning development that instantly changed the race for the state Supreme Court, a county clerk’s error on election night added 7,582 votes for incumbent Justice David Prosser over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. The additional votes almost certainly will give Prosser the victory in the heated race for the high court.
As of early afternoon Thursday, Kloppenburg had been ahead in the race, according to totals compiled by the Associated Press. The additional votes for Prosser were found after it was determined that all the votes for the City of Brookfield were not included in the initial counts that the county provided to the Associated Press, which has been maintaining a statewide tally of votes. The revised Waukesha County figures show Prosser with 11,008 more votes than were initially recorded for him, while Kloppenburg picked up 3,426 more votes. The net result is an additional 7,582 votes for Prosser.
Earlier Thursday, unofficial results compiled by the Associated Press had Kloppenburg winning by 244 votes. Kloppenburg issued a statement Thursday evening saying she will be requesting all relevant records surrounding the snafu.”Wisconsin voters as well as the Kloppenburg for Justice Campaign deserve a full explanation of how and why these 14,000 votes from an entire City were missed,” the statement said.
“We are confident that election officials in Waukesha County will fulfill these requests as quickly as possible so that both our campaign and the people of Wisconsin can fully understand what happened and why,” Kloppenburg said. ”
Just as Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg has run to restore confidence in the court, Wisconsin residents also deserve to have full confidence in election results.” Prosser said he was “encouraged” by the changing vote totals.
Full Article: http://shorewood.patch.com/articles/additional-votes-found-in-waukesha-county-canvassing