What Will Wanggaard Do? Tuesday is Deadline to Challenge Recount

The recall election in the 21st State Senate District could continue to drag on, if Republican Van Wanggaard goes to court before the end of the day Tuesday to challenge the results.

, Democrat John Lehman came out the winner over incumbent Republican Van Wanggaard by 834 votes

Wanggaard requested a recount and when it was over, .

Wanggaard's only recourse to challenge the results is to file a lawsuit in Racine County Circuit Court, and he has until the end of the day Tuesday to do so.

At the conclusion of the recount on July 2, Wanggaard attorney Jonathan Strasburg said the campaign would fully weigh its options before making any decisions.

"We have five business days to make a decision," he said at the time. "We want to let the dust settle on the last two weeks before we start talking about how to move forward."

Still, Wanggaard seemed to make a case for a challenge when he submitted a and what he discovered along the way. He specifically pointed to a claim from Democrats that the recalls were a trial run to prepare for November, but then said what came to light showed a flawed system in the 21st District.

He wrote:

Yet, Wisconsin’s long-standing laws prohibiting electioneering, same-day registration requirements, and how to receive and count ballots were widely ignored in this trial run. Election laws are in place to ensure the integrity of the vote. When they are not followed, the results are less trustworthy.

The state Government Accountability Board will certify the results of the recount only if Wanggaard does not file a challenge in court by the end of the day Tuesday.

The race is being closely watched around Wisconsin because the outcome will determine which party controls the state Senate.

If Lehman remains the winner, Democrats will have a mostly symbolic majority in the Senate. The Legislature is not in session until January, and the balance of power in Madison very much hinges on the November elections when 16 of 33 Senate seats and all 99 Assembly seats are up for grabs.

Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen said she is unsure what happens in the event Wanggaard does file a challenge.

"I'm really not sure what happens next because I've never had this happen here before," she said. "What is required of us at the county and at the municipalities could depend on how the challenge is filed and what is specified in the challenge."

Questions about the validity of the election returns from June 5 started almost immediately, sparked in part by how long it took for wards in the City of Racine to report their numbers. Allegations and from .

Some of the irregularities that Wanggaard's camp is calling fraud include found, while in the same poll book, not on the correct pages; missing pages from municipal poll books; and .

To file an appeal of the recount results, Wanggaard must meet three criteria as listed on the State Bar of Wisconsin website:

A party appealing the recount results must establish, through evidence, that: 1) a mistake, fraud, defect, irregularity, or illegality was committed during the voting, canvassing, or recount process; 2) the offending conduct led to votes being improperly included in or excluded from the election results; and (3) the number of disputed votes exceeds the margin by which the prevailing candidate won.

Candidates can only file a challenge if they or a representative was present during the recount and made objections known to the Board of Canvass. Strasburg was at the recount every day and is on record, for example, objecting to the signature and ballot bag issues.

Lehman and lawyers for the Democratic Party call the accusations "much ado about nothing" and chalk it all up to delaying Lehman being sworn into his seat.

"It shows that we won the election and all of these allegations of voter irregularities are false and are really much ado about nothing," Lehman said after Christensen certified the results of the recount. "The results from election night have been proven correct through tape and tally totals."