Two statewide races could be fought beyond the Nov. 7 election, as both the attorney general and state treasurer elections ended within the margin of error between two candidates.
According to Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the Elections Board, both Democratic attorney general candidate Kathleen Falk and Republican treasurer candidate Jack Voight contacted the State Elections Board Monday to check the status of the official vote counts.
"The candidates have been calling in and keeping an eye on the delivery of the results coming in from the County Boards of Canvassers," Richmond said. "As of [Monday], 19 Boards of Canvassers have reported, of the 72 counties."
Richmond added that Falk called and Voight visited the Elections Board office personally.
And Republican attorney general candidate J.B. Van Hollen — the unofficial winner of the Nov. 7 election — is watching the vote counting closely as well. Van Hollen's campaign manager, Juston Johnson, was at the Milwaukee County Courthouse Friday watching officials conduct their vote canvass. Ballot counting is open to the public.
Unofficial reports showed Van Hollen leading Kathleen Falk by 9,071 votes. But the official margin will remain unknown until Nov. 21, the deadline when all counties must send their canvass results to the Elections Board, which certifies the numbers.
Adam Collins, Falk's communications director, said Falk is awaiting official canvass results before making a decision to recount.
"We would need a major shift [of votes]," Collins said.
Voight, serving as state treasurer since 1995, said he would not concede his race, either.
Democratic challenger Dawn Sass defeated Voight, 47.4 percent to 46.9 percent. Sass had 969,115 votes to Voight's 960,467. Libertarian candidate Tim Peterson had 59,541 votes and Green Party candidate Winston Sephus had 57,063 votes.
Voight said he wants to look at the final numbers before making a decision.
"I'm within the margin of error, so I am looking at [a recount] seriously," he said.
If the official results show less than one half of a percent of a difference between candidates, the municipalities must finance the recount. If the margin is between one half percent and 2 percent, the candidate requesting the recount must pay $5 per ward that conducts the recount. With any result more than 2 percent, the candidate must completely finance the recount.
However, some groups are critical of the election tabulating in the state.
Fair Elections Wisconsin — an independent, all-volunteer organization that monitors state elections — said in a release Monday that recent recounts in Wisconsin have ignored a significant statutory requirement that requires testing of the automatic tabulator as part of the recount.
The group proposed returning the option of manual ballot counting and better procedures for cases where automatic tabulators are used.
"A lot of municipalities are casting ballots on paper in the first place and hand counting them anyway, but a lot of places use an optical scan," Richmond said. "If they rescan the ballots, they still have to put them through a machine by hand."
Richmond added that with the use of touch screens, such as in Pierce County, municipalities must verify voting with a paper trail of cashier tape.
After all the official results are verified, any candidate wanting a recount must petition the Elections Board within three business days. The board would then notify all 72 counties, setting a day and time when the recount would take place.
