The state-wide Wisconsin Supreme Court election which yesterday signified the woken sleeping giant of union power and righteous populist anger is about to mean nothing at all.
Yesterday, Kloppenburg declared victory when she was up by 200+ votes over conservative incumbent David Prosser. Despite the tiny margin, the left was quick to declare a big victory over Republican Gov. Scott Walker, calling Kloppenburg’s come-from-behind victory the exacting of union retribution for Walker’s collective bargaining bill.
In a recount Thursday, Prosser went up by 40 votes early in the day, triggering cautious optimism from conservatives. By the late afternoon, press reported an error in heavily-Prosser Waukesha County, which may have left over 7,000 Prosser votes uncounted.
A Waukesha radio station, WTMJ, reported county clerk Kathy Nickolaus told them Prosser would pick up more than 7,000 votes from the city of Brookfield, whose 14,000 votes had gone untabulated.
Prior to the election, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was heavily criticized for her decision to keep the county results on an antiquated personal computer, rather than upgrade to a new data system being utilized statewide. Nickolaus cited security concerns for keeping the data herself — yet when she reported the data, it did not include the City of Brookfield, whose residents cast nearly 14,000 votes.
Nickolaus appears to have been incompentent, which will likely trigger some sort of legal challenge from the left, but if the cushion is 7,000 votes and there’s some kind of paper trail for it, it will be hard to overturn.
Stephen Hayes reports from Wisconsin sources that “paper trail on the votes will be obvious and difficult for anyone to dispute,” and liberal favorite and numbers guy Nate Silver tweeted “So I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here … Waukesha’s vote total had been slightly lower than you might expect.”
Nickolaus is holding a press conference right now. I will have an update when it’s done.