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)