The recent recount in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg cost counties more than $500,000, an Associated Press survey found.
The AP queried election officials in all 72 counties, asking for their best cost estimates. Seventy counties reported spending a total of nearly $520,500. The actual cost was likely higher because two counties and the state didn’t provide estimates.
Waukesha County appears to have spent the most. It estimated its cost at $129,000, with more than a third of that going to pay a retired judge who oversaw the recount after the embattled county clerk recused herself.
… Kloppenburg called for a recount, as is her right under state law. Prosser’s campaign pressured her not to do it, saying the margin was too big to overcome and it would just cost taxpayers money. In the end, Kloppenburg gained only 312 votes. She conceded the race on May 31.
“I think it’s an expensive affirmation of the results of this election,” Prosser’s campaign manager, Brian Nemoir, said after being told of the counties’ spending total.
Kloppenburg’s campaign manager, Melissa Mulliken, said in a statement responding to the AP survey that the recount was worthwhile because the margin was so close. The recount also exposed “numerous and significant” issues with Wisconsin’s election process, including unsealed and torn ballot bags, bags that didn’t match inspectors’ reports, blank touchscreen voting machine records and problems reconciling poll books across the state, she said.
“There is the chance that future elections in Wisconsin … will be better run and more secure because of the lessons learned in this recount,” Mulliken said.
Full Article: Supreme Court recount cost $520,000-plus, survey shows.