The race between Tom Barrett and Scott Walker could drag on for weeks. Dems prep for recall recount

Brace yourself: Wisconsin Democrats say they are preparing for the event that the hotly contested recall race could drag on for weeks, or even longer.

Floating the prospect of a recount is, of course, a message that bolsters the party’s claims that the race is closer than people think and that it will go down to the wire — despite polls showing Walker with the lead.


( See also: Full Wisconsin recall coverage)

Yet there’s reason a recount can’t be so easily dismissed.

Walker can’t seem to break his 50 percent ceiling of support among Wisconsin voters. His ballot support has hovered at either 50 percent or 49 percent in 12 of the 14 polls released since early May, and recent polls show the race tightening in the final stretch.

“We’re very much anticipating that there’s a chance that we could be in a recount scenario,” said Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. He said the party will have more than 440 lawyers in the field on Tuesday “doing election protection activities but also tasked with recount preparation, making sure that we know where absentee ballots are at, making sure that we have a strong handle on what’s happening out there.”

The deeply polarized Badger State also has fresh experience with an excruciatingly close race. JoAnne Kloppenburg requested a recount last spring after losing a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race to incumbent David Prosser by less than 0.5 percent. The recount had Prosser leading by about 7,004 votes in that race, which was seen as an early referendum on Walker’s efforts to curb collective bargaining rights.

Kloppenburg penned an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the wake of the recount, saying the scrutiny uncovered “significant and widespread errors and anomalies” in the election process.

Naturally, Republicans are keeping mum on the prospect of a recount, preferring not to acknowledge the possibility when Walker leads in the polls.

Ben Sparks, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, declined to comment when asked whether the GOP is girding for such a scenario. And Walker told reporters on Monday that he’s not thinking about a recount at this point, Wisconsin radio station WTAQ reported.

Under Wisconsin law, only a candidate can request a recount of election results. If the difference in votes is less than 0.5 percent of the total votes cast, a recount would be free to the candidate requesting it. Otherwise, the candidate requesting the recount would have to pay for it. The amount would depend on the number of votes cast and the difference between the total votes cast between candidates.

If a recount is requested after Tuesday’s election, the process couldn’t even begin until the election results are certified in another two weeks, said Reid Magney, a spokesman for Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board.

In the Supreme Court race recount last year, the recount of the April 5 ballots lasted more than a month, with the Wisconsin elections board finally certifying the results on May 23.

The prospect isn’t very enticing to fatigued voters and candidates who are hoping for resolution this week.

“I think everyone hopes that that doesn’t happen,” said former state Sen. John Lehman, who is running in a recall race for the seat he lost in 2010. “To be tortured by weeks of recount” isn’t what anyone wants at this point, he added.