Waukesha - The panel charged with recounting, by hand, more than 124,000 ballots cast in Waukesha County for the state Supreme Court race between challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg and Justice David Prosser has asked for more time to complete its task.
The recount began April 27 and only 20,386 were expected to be recounted by the end of the day Wednesday, according to a letter to the state Governmental Accountability Board from retired Circuit Court Judge Robert Mawdsley.
Mawdsley was selected to oversee the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers in the recount of votes cast in the county April 5.
Kloppenburg's campaign requested a recount after the official tally showed she lost to Prosser by 7, 316 votes - less than 0.5% of the 1.5 million votes cast in the race.
The election initially appeared much closer - with Kloppenburg, a state justice department attorney - up by 204 votes, before Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced her initial, unofficial tally failed to include 14,315 votes from the City of Brookfield.
With the extension, on May 9, the current deadline, the recount would be moved from a smaller room to the cafeteria in the county's Administration Center, according to Mawdsley's letter.
The move would allow for twice the number of tabulators, who would also be able to tally multiple reporting units simultaneously, Mawdsley said.