Vote Count Error Gives Walker Judge Huge Lead

Scott Walker foes, hold off on that celebration in Wisconsin. In a stunning turn of events that will no doubt leave Republicans gleeful and Democrats seething, GOP-backed David Prosser now looks like he's going to keep his seat on the state Supreme Court. Yesterday, his liberal-backed opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, declared victory when AP said she had a slim lead of about 200 votes. Today, a county corrected its total—and the new count gives Prosser a seemingly insurmountable 7,500-vote lead, reports AP.

"The purpose of the canvass is to catch these kind of mistakes," said Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, who explained that results from one city failed to get saved into the database. She chalked it up to human error and added, "I apologize," notes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The race turned into a proxy fight over Walker's law to curb union power, and opponents hoped a Kloppenburg victory would not only send a message to Republicans but also help overturn the measure on the state's high court. (More JoAnne Kloppenburg stories.)