By Benjamin Yount for Watchdog.org
Wisconsin’s race for state Supreme Court is all but over.
“Her plan is obviously to wait until the canvas is completed, and then make a decision from there,” winning conservative Judge Brian Hagedorn told Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber Tuesday. He said he spoke with his opponent, liberal Judge Lisa Neubauer, over the weekend. “She said they are waiting for the canvassing to be completed. And she will make a decision after that.”
There is fleeting talk of a Neubauer recount. She ended Election Day last week down by nearly 6,000 votes. Hagedorn said that gap has widened.
“No recount in history, in recent American history since we’ve been doing modern voting over the last couple of decades, has seen 6,000 votes. You’re lucky if you get 1,000,” Hagedorn said. “It seems like it would be a waste of time and effort.”
County clerks have until Friday to finish their final vote count. Hagedorn said he expects local election managers to finish that count in the next day or so. Then, Wisconsin’s Election Commission will certify the vote.
If Neubauer wants a recount, she will have to ask for one by Monday.
Neubauer has said that she wants “every vote counted.” Her campaign has been silent since a Facebook video on the day after Election Day and a memo the next day that pointed to Wisconsin’s 2011 race for Supreme Court where nearly 14,000 votes were found after the polls closed.
But that was a one off. The clerk in Waukesha County didn’t count votes from the entire city of Brookfield. That mistake was immediately discovered, and conservative judge David Prosser was declared the unofficial winner the day after the election. He was declared the official winner a few weeks later after a recount found just 300-something votes for his opponent.
Hagedorn said he’s looking to put his race, and the political divisiveness on the Wisconsin court, behind him.
“We were both in the office yesterday,” he said of his last contact with Neubauer.
As for the next step, Hagedorn said he spent some time with his family over the weekend, and is saving up time before he starts on the high court later this summer.
[avatar user=”Watchdog.org” size=”thumbnail” align=”left” /] Benjamin Yount reports on Illinois and Wisconsin statewide issues for Watchdog.org. Reposted with permission.
