The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board announced incumbent State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser as the winner in the closely contested court election, after it received canvass reports from all 72 counties Friday.
Prosser campaign spokesperson Brian Nemoir released a statement celebrating the victory and also praised challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.
""Today, the will of the electorate is clear with the last canvas now completed and Justice David Prosser reelected to another 10 year term to the Supreme Court,"" Nemoir said. ""Justice Prosser extends his appreciation and respect to JoAnne Kloppenburg and her spirited campaign.""
Final results showed Prosser won by a margin of 7,316 votes out of nearly 150,000 total votes cast, amounting to a .488 percent margin of victory.
However, the GAB said in a statement it could not officially certify the results until the April 20 deadline to file for a recount passes.
Should someone file for a recount, it would be funded by the state because of the small margin of victory. Any race which is decided by a margin of less than .5 percent nullifies the requirement for a filing fee, according to the GAB.
Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the GAB, praised election officials in the statement for how they handled the close results.
""We appreciate the diligent and meticulous work of municipal and county election officials in completing their official canvass reports,"" Kennedy said. ""Close elections always bring greater scrutiny of each step of the process and local election officials have performed professionally and efficiently during the official canvass.""
Kloppenburg originally declared victory while leading by only 204 votes, before news broke April 7 that Waukesha County election official Kathy Nickolaus had not counted the city of Brookfield in her election night vote totals, which netted over 7,000 votes for Prosser.
