Wis. corrects vote count, gives incumbent big lead
By Associated Press
Apr 7, 2011 6:03 PM CDT
Gov. Scott Walker, center, turns to company president Dennis Webb, center right, as Walker visits DeltaHawk, a manufacturer of diesel aircraft engines in Racine, Wis., Thursday April 7, 2011. Walker is framed by the wing of one of two experimental velocity airplanes which the company uses as test planes....   (Associated Press)

A conservative-leaning Wisconsin county is correcting its count and giving an unofficial 7,500-vote lead to the incumbent in the hotly contested state Supreme Court race seen as a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's divisive union rights law.

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said Thursday that the votes weren't reported to The Associated Press on Tuesday due to "human error."

Before the announcement, it was assumed 68-year-old conservative Justice David Prosser's race against liberal assistant state attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg was headed for a recount.

But Prosser's lead is likely to stand if the new numbers hold up through canvassing in all of Wisconsin's 72 counties.

Opponents of the union rights law had hoped a Kloppenburg victory would set the stage for the high court to strike it down.