Wednesday, April 20, 2011
4:02 PM
Kloppenburg says narrow margin demands recount, asks for professional investigation of Waukesha County
JoAnne Kloppenburg said this afternoon a series of anomalies in various Wisconsin counties and the narrow margin in her race with Justice David Prosser demand a statewide recount.
"It is right for me, it is right for my campaign, it is right for my supporters, and it is right for the people of Wisconsin," Kloppenburg said.
She also called on the Government Accountability Board to appoint a special investigator to "professionally, thoroughly and completely investigate the actions and words of the Waukesha County clerk."
Kloppenburg said during a press conference at Warner Park Community Recreation Center in Madison that she did not make her decision lightly. But undervotes in Milwaukee and Racine counties, reports of long lines and photocopied ballots in Fond Du Lac, and significant changes in the Winnebago County vote totals necessitate a recount.
Kloppenburg said a recount will help "shine the necessary light" on an election whose outcome "seems to so many people to be suspect."
"With a margin this small -- less than one half of one percent -- the importance of every vote is magnified and doubts about each vote are magnified as well," she said.
Because the margin is less than one half of 1 percent, Kloppenburg's campaign will not have to pay for the recount. Those costs will instead be borne by local governments and the state.
"The statutes provide the state will pay when the results are this close," she said.
Kloppenburg said the GAB should seek an outside investigator to look over the Waukesha results because of supportive communications between agency staff and Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus that she said could compromise their ability to do a critical review.
A few dozen supporters cheered on Kloppenburg's announcement, but a heckler at attempted to interrupt her multiple times, at one point shouting, "Wisconsin doesn't want you," and "Our state supports Governor Walker." He was confronted by Kloppenburg supporters and asked to keep quiet.
The man, who would only say that he was from Madison but declined to give his name, left before the end of the press conference and Kloppenburg didn't seem disrupted by him.
-- By JR Ross & Greg Bump
Labels: 2011 spring election
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