The Government Accountability Board, the overseer of statewide elections in Wisconsin, threw out most challenges to recall petitions for three Republican state Senators. This means that the recall elections will almost certainly go forward in those three races, against Sens. Dan Kapanke, Luther Olsen and Randy Hopper.

In other Wisconsin news, the recount in the state Supreme Court race between Republican David Prosser and Democrat JoAnne Kloppenburg has finished.

We’re starting to get an outline of how Wisconsin Republicans will proceed on their anti-union bill stripping most collective bargaining rights for public employees. The version they passed back in March is tied up in court, due to procedural missteps. Republicans have so far pronounced themselves innocent of the charges – but they could end that court action by simply passing the bill in the proper manner. And now, they’re setting the parameters to do that.

Kloppenburg has precisely the right attitude about this recount: “A recount may change the outcome of this election or it may confirm it, but when it is done, a recount will have shed necessary and appropriate light on an election that, right now, seems to so many people to be suspect.”

In a bit of a surprise, assistant US Attorney JoAnne Kloppenburg has filed for a statewide recount of the Wisconsin state Supreme Court election, according to the Government Accountability Board, which oversees the process there.

At the end of the official canvass, Republican Justice David Prosser had a 7,316-vote lead out of 1.5 million ballots cast. This fell just within the 0.5% margin necessary for Kloppenburg to request a recount that would be paid for by the state.

Exactly right. JoAnne Kloppenburg is, at this hour, within the 0.5% that would allow her to call for a recount paid for by the state. She should exercise the option. And extreme care should be taken with Waukesha County. This could all turn out to be perfectly legitimate. All doubt of that can and should be removed.

Waukesha does not use touch-screen voting systems any longer. There is a paper record of all of these ballots. And so, as a double-check given the highly unusual nature of the glitch, all of those ballots should be impounded and counted.

In a dramatic turnaround in a state Supreme Court election full of dramatic turnarounds in Wisconsin, Waukesha County’s clerk has announced that due to human error, vote totals for the city of Brookfield had not been included in the final totals for her county. The resultant addition added a net of 7,583 votes to David Prosser’s total, putting him in a commanding lead over JoAnne Kloppenburg.

The numbers are likely to flip back and forth more than once throughout the next several weeks. A recount is almost certain, and we’re well within the window for that regardless of where the count ends up.

Stay tuned.

JoAnne Kloppenburg, the unheralded Assistant US Attorney who just a few weeks ago didn’t seem to have much of a chance in a state Supreme Court election against a longtime Republican stalwart, declared victory today in the election, after all precincts on an initial count showed her leading by 204 votes out of 1.5 million cast.

There’s going to be a recount, that much is certain. Prosser’s campaign told supporters to be ready for one last night. But going into that recount, it looks like Kloppenburg will have the lead. And it’s amazing that this relative unknown had that opportunity, considering that in the primary just a month or so ago, she had the support of only 25% of the electorate, and Prosser had 55% support.