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The state's top election watchdog agency announced Tuesday that it has satisfied itself that results certified by Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus for the April 5 election are consistent with totals reported by municipalities, though "a few anomalies" were found in a four-day investigation.

Those discrepancies involved only a handful of votes.

"After completing the review of the election materials from Waukesha County, there were some discrepancies found in the Government Accountability Board's evaluation of the Waukesha County election returns that could not be explained based upon the documentation reviewed," the board staff said in a statement.

"I am pleased that the Government Accountability Board has concluded that a correction of the canvass is not warranted due to the fact that they found no major discrepancies in our official canvass report," Nickolaus said in an email response.

"I have been, and will continue to be, cooperative with the Government Accountability Board throughout this entire process."

Although all 72 counties, including Waukesha, certified their results last week, state elections staff reviewed Nickolaus' records and interviewed Nickolaus.

The investigation began after Nickolaus announced at a news conference two days after the election that she had erroneously given unofficial election night totals that did not include Brookfield's 14,315 votes. She said she had failed to save the vote totals on her computer, so they weren't tallied in an unofficial summary.

The full Waukesha County results ended up reversing the reported outcome, putting incumbent Justice David Prosser more than 7,000 votes ahead of challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, who initially appeared on top by 204 votes statewide.

Canvass results certified by all the counties Friday gave Prosser 752,323 votes and Kloppenburg 745,007 votes, a 0.488% difference. The deadline for requesting a recount is 5 p.m. Wednesday. State law permits a recount without the usual filing fee when the margin of victory is within 0.5%.

Prosser declared victory Monday, and his campaign officials say a recount would be costly and ineffective in overturning Prosser's win.

In response to the latest investigation, Prosser campaign spokesman Brian J. Nemoir said, "Today, the Government Accountability Board's timely and well-researched report detailing the Waukesha County vote reporting error brings an added independent voice to the chorus affirming the results of this election."

Melissa Mulliken of the Kloppenburg campaign said Tuesday that a decision on the recount will be announced by Wednesday's deadline, when the Waukesha County findings will also be addressed.

Jay Weiner, who wrote a book about the 2008 recount for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, has said it is improbable to change the results of an election when the margin is as large as 7,300 votes.

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the Accountability Board, said his staff still intends to issue a report based on further investigation of Nickolaus' operation, including her collection of election night results in general, how those results are released to the public and how she prepares for the official canvass. He was unable to give a specific timeline because of the workload associated with a potential recount and the mounting paperwork tied to the possible recalls of up to 16 state senators.

The report concluded that despite a few anomalies in Waukesha County, "The GAB found no major discrepancies between Waukesha County's official canvass report and the documentation provided by the municipalities. This does not warrant correction of the canvass absent any post election proceedings. A more thorough discussion of these anomalies will be provided in the agency's complete report."

Expensive race

Also Tuesday, a report said spending in the race totaled $5.4 million, with more than 80% of the money coming from special interest groups that often do not report where they get their money.

The report on total spending by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign details $4.5 million in spending by third-party groups - substantially more than earlier estimates on TV spending from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

The Brennan Center tracked spending by those groups on TV ads and said this year's race set a record for ad spending. The Democracy Campaign's report included other spending as well, such as for phone banks, radio ads and mailers.

Overall spending this year is not a record. The 2007 race cost $5.8 million, and the 2008 race cost almost $6 million; those races put Justices Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman on the court.

This year's spending by third-party groups was second highest in state history - $4.5 million compared with $4.8 million in the 2008 race.

The groups spent $2.7 million to help Prosser and $1.8 million to help Kloppenburg, the Democracy Campaign found.

Prosser and Kloppenburg were limited in what they spent because they participated in a program that provided them with taxpayer money for their campaigns. The idea behind the program is to minimize conflicts of interest for justices.

The Democracy Campaign tracks campaign spending and lobbies for public financing for candidates. It was a proponent of the program for Supreme Court candidates.

The future of that program is in doubt because of court challenges and opposition from Republicans who control the Legislature.