Politics & Government
Recount Expected To Take More Than 8 Days
Last week Van Wanggaard filed a petition with the Government Accountability Board seeking a recount of the hotly contested 21st Senate race and that recount is set to begin Wednesday morning.
The recount of the 71,868 votes cast in the 21st Senate recall election between Senator-elect John Lehman and Van Wanggaard is expected to begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Racine County Courthouse.
Wanggaard, on June 5, filed a petition Friday with the Government Accountability Board . Wanggaard lost to Lehman on June 5 by 834 votes — with Lehman receiving 36,351 votes and Wanggaard getting 35,517 votes.
Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen said the recount would likely take at least eight days because it took that amount of time to recount the ballots for the State Supreme Court race this spring.
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“The judicial recount (in April) took eight days, but we will definitely need more time because we have twice as many ballots,” Christensen said.
The County has 13 days from the date of the order to complete the recount, which could extend to July 2 since the 13th day would be on a Sunday.The recount includes reconciling the poll books, re-tabulating the vote counts on the machines and in some cases counting ballots by hand.
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Since Wanggaard lost by a margin of more than one-half a percentage point, he will need to pay for a portion of the recount. According to state statute, "the petitioner shall pay a fee of $5 for each ward for which the petition requests a ballot recount, or $5 for each municipality for which the petition requests a recount where no wards exist."
Christensen is unsure exactly how much the recount will cost, but the April recount cost $7,000. Michael Haas, staff counsel at the Government Accountability Board, said the GAB received the petition along with a check for $685.
The outcome of the 21st Senate District race has been watched closely statewide because a Lehman victory gives Democrats control of the state Senate by a 17-16 margin.
The public can come to the Racine County Courthouse, 730 Wisconsin Ave., to watch the recount, but they will have to sign in and out of the room. The public also can’t bring purses, brief cases, pencils, black pens or blue pens into the room.
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