Right Wing Electoral Fraud In Wisconsin???
The following post appears in The Dog Blog - Prairie Dog Magazine:
What The Hell? Wisconsin Election Just Went Sideways
by Aidan Morgan
The Wisconsin State Supreme Court election just hit… a bump. After a result on Tuesday that landed in an extremely narrow victory for challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, a clerk reported that 14,000 votes from Waukesha County had gone uncounted.
That’s the bump that reverses Tuesday’s election results and hands the Supreme Court back over to Republican incumbent David Prosser back in charge with a margin of 7,582 votes.
What is significant about that number? Well! Under Wisconsin State law, an automatic recount is triggered whenever an election’s margin is under .5 per cent – which in this case is approximately 7,400 votes.
Even better, the ‘clerical error’ that somehow missed 14,000 votes was committed by a woman named Kathy Nickolaus. If the State of Wisconsin were a high school, Nickolaus would be voted Most Likely To Commit Election Fraud. To wit:
"Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, a former staffer for the Assembly Republican Caucus, has been sharply criticized in recent months for her handling of recent elections. Even the archly-conservative Waukesha County Board has sharply condemned Nickolaus after past elections, demanding an immediate audit of her practices following ominous red-flags that emerged regarding her lack of oversight, failure to create backup files and her stubborn insistence to “keep everything secret.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/18/10; 1/17/11]
The County auditors said it was eminently possible—including historical precedent—for Nickolaus or a rogue employee to tamper with data. Why? Nickolaus insists on controlling password access and has unilaterally decided to move sensitive files, like election results, onto her personal computer.
Nickolaus has actually scoffed at complying with impartial audits, thumbing her nose at critics. A move that drew a sharp reaction at the time from the County Board Chair:
“There really is nothing funny about this, Kathy,” said Waukesha County Board Chairman Jim Dwyer when Nickolaus willfully ignored complying with the earlier impartial audit. “Don’t sit there and grin when I’m explaining what this is about.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/18/10; 1/17/11]
On Tuesday, shockingly-large turnout suddenly emerged from Waukesha County, which did not comport with either the results of previous spring elections, or even internal estimates from city officials mid-day. In fact, a Waukesha City Deputy Clerk said at 1:18pm that turnout was very typical, predicting somewhere between 20 to 25 percent. As Tuesday night wore on, reporting in Waukesha County stopped altogether for hours, leaving observers to wonder what was going on. Then suddenly, results suggesting massive turnout started to pour in rapidly with Prosser adding dramatically to his total by a 73-27 percent margin.
One Wisconsin Now estimates put overall turnout near 38 percent, a wild outlier to historical data and the earlier mid-day estimation of Waukesha’s own officials. In April 2009, turnout was 20 percent; April 2008, turnout was 22 percent and in April 2007, turnout was 24."
One Wisconsin Now
Daily Kos is keeping up on the story as it develops.
-Officials dispute reliability of Waukesha County clerk's election data system
I don't understand how this can happen. In Canada party scrutineers keep an independent count of the number of voters, so votes can't get lost (or added) without someone knowing something is wrong.
Posted by
doconnor |
12:22 pm, April 08, 2011
I think this is a case where a number of factors play a role:
-Lack of public accountability
-untrained/unqualified staff
-poor leadership & supervision
Posted by
leftdog |
12:47 pm, April 08, 2011
... ohh .. and a big dose of Right wing self justification on the county clerk's part who is a GOP appointment!
Posted by
leftdog |
12:50 pm, April 08, 2011
Never mind that the ranking Democrat supported the decision that the Republican was the winner, try 13:30 of this video - http://www.jsonline.com/general/37714089.html?bcpid=8725036001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAGgk8Us~,dLqgruaIT6rTqyyEHVUdSjL5KQ9h61sv&bctid=895391546001
Posted by
UncleMeat |
10:06 pm, April 08, 2011
Americans are always trying to mechanize things. How they can be satisfied with touch screen electronic voting machines with their purely electronic records is beyond me. And leaving control of those records in the hands of ONE petty little bureaucrat with clear partisan ties is just asking for trouble.
I prefer the old-fashioned way we do things in Canada. Each of us gets a piece of paper and we mark our choice with a pencil. Representatives from each candidate get to scrutinize the process as it happens. Then we count the pieces of paper to determine the winner. That's how it should be done.
Posted by
Elliott Taylor |
8:26 am, April 09, 2011
UncleMeat! That is pure nonsense! The methods used by this incompetent Republican county clerk is absolutely shocking! Teaparty Wisconsin has degenerated to the level of some 3rd or 4th world country in terms of electoral competence!
Posted by
leftdog |
9:45 am, April 09, 2011
It has to be noted that a major Democrat who participated in the vote count and the subsequent discovery of the 7,500 omitted votes validated that it was an honest error and approved the final vote tally. She is acknowledged by many as a lifelong union member and Democrat!
Every now and then an honest Democrat appears! Kudos Ramona Kitzinger! Your party could learn a thing or two from you!
Shouldn’t be too long now before the scum on the left starts demonizing another one of their own now, should it? After all, in the union owned Democratic Party, having someone actually tell the truth or show some moral backbone is tantamount to treason, isn’t it?
Posted by
joetote |
10:14 am, April 09, 2011
So sorry Las Vegas Teaparty person. "Abusive material is not published on my site". Why do you American Teaparty types have to be so freaking abusive all the time?
Posted by
leftdog |
10:29 am, April 09, 2011
Nonsense or not, the Democrats conceded the election, case closed...
Posted by
UncleMeat |
7:43 pm, April 09, 2011
Uncle Meat .. why the hell would a good Saskatchewan boy like you support extremist right wing teabagger cheaters like the Walker/Wisconsin crew. The county clerk cheated! She did! She pulled the wool over the eyes of some old scrutineer and you are a-okay with that??? Where do you guys want this all to end? No democracy anymore? Just Right Wing parties running authoritarian governments???
Posted by
leftdog |
10:43 pm, April 09, 2011