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The final results of the Wisconsin recall elections came in after Rachel Maddow made this report. The AP declared the race in Wisconsin Senate District 8 for incumbent Alberta Darling. After taking the viewers through a wrap up of the other final results of the elections during some of MSNBC's extended coverage Tuesday night, Maddow discussed what this is going to mean for the balance of power in the Wisconsin Senate and how all eyes might now be turning to state Sen. Dale Schultz in that regard since he has shown a willingness to work with some of his Democratic colleagues and push back against Gov. Scott Walkers radical anti-union agenda.

Markos did a wrap up on the elections and shared some of his thoughts on why all of us should not be completely pessimistic about the outcome of these races.

Wisconsin wrap up, a real victory, and we fight on:

I've got to say, I expected to be torn up if we didn't get to three seats. I expected to suffer through yet another bout of electoral depression, bummed at coming up short yet again. And we did come up short!

Short of what? Short of taking the Wisconsin Senate? Sure. That would've been nice.

But let me just say, if tonight was a loss, I hope we have many more such "losses" in 2012.

We took the fight into red territory, and took two seats. What was a safe 19-14 GOP advantage is now a narrow 17-16. If we had those numbers going into 2011, the anti-labor bill would never have passed—one GOPer voted with the Democrats (and hey, Sen. Dale Schultz, the water is mighty fine on our side of the aisle!).

The execrable Randy Hopper is gone. He can cry in his 20-something-year-old mistress's arms tonight. And Kapanke too. It sucks being unemployed in Wisconsin these days. Maybe they can get a non-union job at McDonald's.

Beyond Wisconsin, if we can enjoy a similar "loss rate" in Republican-held districts (picking up 33 percent of them), Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have a huge majority in 2013. We had a message that resonated with large numbers of working people in overwhelmingly white working-class districts that shifted hard against Democrats in 2010. GOP overreach is winning them back for us. Just think, before today, only 13 state legislators had been recalled in the entire history of this nation.

So yeah, I feel strangely energized and elated.

And as he noted, this is going to be a long war fighting against all the Koch money and from similar groups like Karl Rove's and others that was poured into these recall elections and we're going to have to fight for every inch of territory. And as he noted, they're going to try to cheat and steal or buy any election everywhere they can when they feel they can't win an election fairly. Which brings things back to full circle where we should all be demanding that AG Eric Holder look into the activities out of Waukesha County county clerk Kathy Nickolaus' office.

If anyone would like to contact his office to inquire on that matter, the information to do so is here.

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During some of MSNBC's extended coverage of the recall elections in Wisconsin and with things looking like it could come down to Waukesha County again after what we already went through with the Supreme Court race there, John Nichols stated the obvious. Rep. Tammy Baldwin was correct to say that Waukesha County county clerk Kathy Nickolaus should be investigated by the Department of Justice.

The question is, why hasn't Attorney General Eric Holder done anything about it? Or need I ask given his track record?

Here's a reminder from this past April on the call for Nickolaus to be investigated -- Tammy Baldwin Asks Eric Holder To Investigate Wisconsin Supreme Court Election:

After the bombshell announcement that a Waukesha County clerk forgot to report thousands of votes in Wisconsin's Supreme Court election, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to involve the federal government in the ongoing investigation.

Last Tuesday's election, which pitted conservative incumbent David Prosser against progressive candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg, appeared to end with Kloppenburg winning by a razor-thin margin, with initial results showing her just a couple of hundred votes ahead. But on Thursday, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus held a dramatic press conference and admitted that she had forgotten to report the votes of the city of Brookfield. The adjusted total gave Prosser a 7,500-vote advantage.

On Friday evening, Baldwin sent a letter to Holder, saying that many of her constituents had expressed concern about the announcement. She requested that the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section, which oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes, investigate the handling of Waukesha County's vote records.

"For our democracy to endure, we, the people, must have faith in its laws and system of justice, including faith that our elections for public office are fair and free from any manipulating or tampering," wrote Baldwin. "Following this week’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, numerous constituents have contacted me expressing serious doubt that this election was a free and fair one. They fear, as I do, that political interests are manipulating the results."

A Justice Department spokesperson told The Huffington Post that they had received the letter and are reviewing the matter. Read on...