Waukesha County Recount now 84% Complete

Waukesha County reported 15,249 ballots in the state Supreme recount to the Government Accountability Board as of Wednesday night as the county is nearing an end of the recount that involves 125,070 ballots.

The county – which is the last county in the state to complete the recount – has reported 105,141 votes to the election regulation board. However, all ballots have been counted, according to an e-mail from Ellen Nowak, chief of staff for Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas.

That means about 84 percent of the votes have been reported to the GAB  in the recount for the April 5 election between incumbent David Prosser and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.

"As of this afternoon, all ballots for the April 5, 2011, election have been recounted by tabulators and what remains is the Board of Canvass' work to finalize the ballots and poll books for wards in the city of Waukesha and city of Muskego," Nowak said.  "The Board of Canvass will meet tomorrow to continue work on that process." 

The GAB gave Waukesha County an extension until May 26 as the county needed additional time to complete the recount. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus recused herself from the recount after a mistake she made on election night - Nickolaus did not include the city of Brookfield votes in her unofficial media report - caused Kloppenburg to declare victory. When the mistake was discovered, Prosser won the election by about 7,000 votes, pending the conclusion of the recount.