Haas testified that requiring all counties to conduct hand recounts could further burden counties scrambling to staff the recount. “Many clerks have expressed to us already that they’re having trouble recruiting enough people,” Haas said.

Cost estimates differ widely

Each county provided a cost estimate to the state, ranging from 19 cents per vote in La Crosse County, where a recount has already begun in a close state Senate race between Democrat Jennifer Shilling and Republican Dan Kapanke, to $6.65 per vote in Pierce County. The average was $1.31 per vote statewide.

The average cost was $1.35 per vote in counties doing a hand count, $1.14 per vote in counties doing an optical scan, and $2.13 in counties doing a combination of both methods.

Lincoln County Clerk Christopher Marlowe said his county is doing a hand count because it’s easier to do for a single race and “just to prove our equipment is not rigged.”

At least one county said it overestimated the cost, which could skew the statewide averages. Oneida County told the state Elections Commission it would cost $178,000 to recount 21,033 ballots by both hand and optical scan, or $8.46 per vote, the highest in the state.