More than a month after losing his recall election, Wisconsin Republican State Senator Van Wanggaard has conceded the race. This gives Wisconsin Democrats control of the Senate. Wanggaard had gotten a recount that showed him still losing by more than 800 votes. He then had until the end of today to decide whether to sue over the results. The Wisconsin State Journal runs his statement. A snip:
“The seemingly never-ending delay by Dane County judges preventing implementation of Wisconsin’s voter ID law undoubtedly played a role in this recall election. Even if I were to challenge and win in Racine County court, an appeal to that challenge would be heard in the Madison’s Court of Appeals. A challenge would also be extremely costly to taxpayers, who have already been forced to waste $20 million on the recall election.
“Despite pleas from around the state to challenge the election, it is not in the best interests of Racine, or Wisconsin, at this time. Now is the time to focus on gaining the state senate back in November, winning Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seat, and electing Governor Romney as President.”
Wanggaard has made charges of suspicious activity at the polls throughout the recount process. To the extent that things went awry, much of it had to do with clerks making mistakes in complying with the part of state’s new voting law that was in place. The Government Accountability Board says that where clerks failed to get voters to sign a poll book, as the new law requires, their errors shouldn’t invalidate voters’ votes.
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