News Roundup for 4/7/11

Tool used to determine Wisconsin election results

-Headline of the Day-
"Winnebago County vote-count change alters Supreme Court race."

Aw crap. Turns out the Associated Press misreported some numbers from Winnebago County and JoAnne Kloppenburg takes a hit. The new, revised count puts incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser in the lead by 40 votes. That's right now as I'm writing this. Could change in a minute.

See these numbers aren't final either. According to the report, AP "is working to reach the Winnebago County clerk, but the clerk is participating in the canvass of the vote and has not returned a message." So something's going on up there.

In any case, a recount is definitely in the cards. When the difference in the totals is less than half a percent, you can call for a recount at the state's expense. I think 40 votes meets that criteria under anyone's definition of "easily."

But before that, all the votes have to be verified, which means these stories may bust out again occasionally -- Kloppenburg up, Prosser up, Kloppenburg up, etc. It's election night all over again.

"Keep in mind that spreadsheet errors and adjustments happen in nearly every election -- but most elections aren't so close that people start to notice or care," writes Eric Kleefeld for Talking Points Memo. "And once all of them are discovered, they often tend to roughly balance out and only barely move the numbers. Then again, in an election this close, even a tiny movement of the numbers could have an effect.

"But bottom line: We didn't truly know who won the election on Wednesday, and we don't know right now, either. It's probably going to be a while."

Settle in, folks. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, scary people want to do bad things to America! Should we be tough or should we wuss out?


Click for animation

OK, so I guess we're going with "wuss" then? (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Idaho Rejects Rape Exception In Abortion Bill Because 'The Hand Of The Almighty' Was At Work."

I don't think I like Republican's Rape God very much... (ThinkProgress)

News Roundup for 4/6/11

A win is a win

-Headline of the day-
"Kloppenburg declares victory over Prosser in Supreme Court race."

The race that came to be seen as a proxy war between Gov. Scott Walker and pretty much everyone else has produced a winner. JoAnne Kloppenburg defeated incumbent Justice David Prosser in a stunning come-from-behind victory with a decisive landslide of... 204 votes. The next time someone tells you that every vote counts, nod knowingly, 'cause it's so true.

The race went all freakin' night -- back and forth, back and forth, until everyone was tired of it -- as districts overwhelmed by high turnout struggled to get a vote count out while it was still election night. Three failed. Two Milwaukee County districts and one Jefferson County district were left when I checked this morning. While the Jefferson County vote had been leaning strongly toward Prosser, when the remaining district finally came in it reflected the rest of the state -- Prosser closed the gap by only two votes. With only Milwaukee County left, it was all but hopeless.

Then Milwaukee County finally came in and, yeah, it was hopeless. With nothing left to count, Kloppenburg took the prize.

For now. The Prosser campaign says they'll file for a recount, which they can have done at state expense, since the vote total is so close. So who knows, really?

Still, round one goes to Kloppenburg. And the people of Wisconsin. (Wisconsin State Journal)


-Not good, not good...-
Apparently, GOP presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty's campaign staff is dedicated. While everyone else is asleep, they're still out there pounding the pavement and knocking on doors -- which is weird because, as I said, everyone else is asleep.

According to the report, "A 15-year-old [Iowa] girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning" -- "early" being three in the morning. Apparently, the T-Paw worker, Benjamin Foster, was doing some sort of creepy Night of the Living Dead impression. At least, that's what I got out of the girl's description of it.

"His arm was in my back door, trying to get in and I screamed and went upstairs to my parents room and I continued screaming," she said.

Cops were called and Foster was taken in for "public intoxication and trespassing." No word on what the fuck he thought he was doing.

For his part, Pawlenty says he's "extremely disappointed" in Foster and fired his sorry ass on the...

Oops! Misread that. Pawlenty has place him "on a two-week unpaid suspension."

That'll learn him. (KCCI, with video)


-Bonus HotD-
"Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president."

"As you know, when Abraham Lincoln founded this country in 317 BC, he had the help of Jesus, Superman, and a bag of magic beans..." (The Hill)