Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker (R-Koch Brothers) isn’t going quietly after his defeat last night. And soon, he’ll realize that he’s kicked his own ass with the recount legislation that was hastily rammed through the Legislature for his signature. The Karma Truck might be late, but it’s delivering the goods.
Walker campaign adviser Brian Reisinger said Walker would wait until the official canvass and the tallying of military ballots before deciding his next steps.
Instead of just moving along, he’s going to play Sore Loser. He won’t concede and plans on waiting for the vote certification canvass. Even then, he’ll play hardball. Right now he’s eyeing about 2,000 “reconstructed” ballots from the absentee pool (not enough to even begin to dent the margin of his loss).
So, what are reconstructed ballots? The Milwaukee Election Commission clarified:
"The process for reconstructing a ballot is entirely transparent, dictated by state law and was followed by the City of Milwaukee," the commission said in a statement.
The statement added that every election has absentee ballots that have to be reconstructed due to voter error or damage to the ballot. That could include voter errors such as marking X’s on ballots or using a pencil to mark the ballot.
"Ballots were also damaged during the sealing of the envelope at in-person absentee voting," the commission said. "If adhesive from the envelope transferred onto the ballot, the ballot was reconstructed rather than risk any compromise to the tabulators' ability to read all votes on the ballot."
The ballots were “reconstructed” in full public view by 2 election workers and observers from all political parties. Ballots that were marked with Xs rather than filled in circles were recreated with filled in circles to allow ballot scanning machinery to read them.
Did I mention that the 2000 reconstructed ballots don’t come close to the over 30,000 vote margin? Or that military ballots (also something Walker is “waiting for”) won’t close that gap.
And then there’s this: