Despite a winning margin of less than 500 votes, Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday and said she believes the totals reported by news agencies would hold even if a recount takes place.
Kloppenburg released a statement Wednesday afternoon that said every precinct in Wisconsin had reported their vote totals and showed Kloppenburg leading her opponent David Prosser by 204 votes to make her the next Supreme Court justice on Aug. 1.
The results remain unofficial, but Kloppenburg told a crowd at the Edgewater Hotel she had confidence in the vetting processes the county clerks and the Government Accountability Board would use to certify the reported vote totals.
“We ran a campaign focused on being positive and respectful and winning, and we’re confident the vote margin will hold,” Kloppenburg said. “It will because we’ve enjoyed broad and deep statewide support and we’re gratified the numbers show that.”
Kloppenburg said she had not spoken with Prosser, a 12-year incumbent justice, since she declared victory, but looked forward to the opportunity.
However, Prosser was not so quick to call the results final and hinted at a possible vote recount.
“The victor in this election won’t be decided today, or even tomorrow,” he said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. “We have survived an epic campaign battle and we will continue to fight for every vote cast.”
If Prosser requests a recount, it will be the first time in over 30 years, GAB Director Kevin Kennedy said.
The last time there was a Wisconsin Supreme Court election recount was in 1980, when former Supreme Court Justice Donald Steinmetz requested a sample recount take place in 100 wards. After the vote margin started increasing in Steinmetz’ favor, his opponent conceded, Kennedy said.
GAB would administer the recount and would only charge the candidate with a fee if the vote margin is above 2 percent. However, the election between Kloppenburg and Prosser resulted in a margin of less than 1 percent, so the only fees candidates would have to pay are fees for attorney firms in the event lawyers are hired to oversee the process, he said.
Both candidates used public financing funds available through the GAB-administered Democracy Trust Fund that provided over $800,000 to their campaigns. However, recounts and the fees associated with them cannot be paid for by public financing, Kennedy said, and funding could come only from individual and PAC contributors, not corporations.
The recount process would take 10 business days and should be finished before May 10, Kennedy said.
According to GAB statistics, 33 percent of eligible citizens in Wisconsin came out to vote on Tuesday. Officials said this election was a litmus test for Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial bill that limited collective bargaining rights for public employees and required them to contribute more toward health care premiums and pensions.
Prosser and Kloppenburg have not yet indicated how they would vote if the Supreme Court decided to hear the case.
“I’m not there to look for an outcome that would favor either political party,” Kloppenburg said. “I’m there to be one of seven justices on a court that decides cases on the law and the facts free of partisanship.”
