John Nichols has a must-read column on the bare-assed attempt to steal the election vote discrepancies in Wisconsin. After pointing out the obvious — that if the clerk had been a Democrat and the “found” votes had favored a liberal candidate, we’d be hearing a different tune from a lot of people — he writes,
The Kloppenburg campaign has demanded “a full explanation of how and why these 14,315 votes from an entire City were missed.†As part of the search for that explanation, the campaign plans to file open records requests for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the County.â€
The open records highlight concerns about the credibility of Nickolaus — whose secretive and suspicious activities led the Waukesha County Board’s executive committee order an audit of the clerk’s use of election equipment and her controversial approaches to counting and tabulating votes. …
… The circumstance lends legitimacy to the call by the advocacy group Citizens Action of Wisconsin for “an immediate federal investigation and immediate impoundment of all computer equipment, ballots, and other relevant evidence needed to verify a fair vote count in Waukesha County.“ Citizen Action says this investigation should include an accounting of all communications by “Kathy Nickolaus and anyone in the Waukesha clerk’s office with all outside actors, and all interested parties to the election dispute.â€
It also demands a full recount, no matter what the ultimate margin of victory or defeat. Whether David Prosser or JoAnne Kloppenburg is elected, the only way that the high court will retain even a shred of credibility is if every ballot is recounted, every tabulation is reviewed and every citizen is certain that this election was legitimate.
What’s likely to happen is that Scott Walker will have the votes “investigated” by county officials that he controls. A federal investigation is warranted.
The claim is that Nickolaus failed to report 14,000 votes from Brookfield City. But in one of the posts I linked to yesterday, it was documented that on election night there were reports that Brookfield City had given Prosser 11,000 votes. Nickolaus appears to be trying to count some of the same votes twice.
Nichols added this detail —
Nickolaus claims that it was “human error†that caused her to “lose†the Brookfield results on her personal computer where she had secreted away the data. Yet, she apparently knew of the “mistake†for 29 hours before reporting it and then handed the information off to conservative bloggers and talk-radio personalities.
There is no way a known partisan would have missed those votes. She would have been watching the vote tallies like a hawk. I don’t think there’s any question these “found” votes were fabricated by Nickolaus in an attempt to steal the election.
David Dayan writes at Firedoglake:
As it turns out, this is not the first time something has gone askew in Waukesha County. Check this out from 2006. A primary for an Assembly seat had results shift on her mid-stream in that race, too. And certainly the process in the county, where Kathy Nickolaus keeps all the tallying on her home computer, is a bit unusual. Not to mention the fact that she sat on the revelation of the missing votes in Brookfield for 29 hours before revealing it. Nickolaus, incidentally, worked for the Assembly Republican caucus at a time when David Prosser was the Speaker of the Assembly, i.e. her boss.
The difference between the 2006 incident and today is that Waukesha does not use touch-screen voting systems any longer. There is a paper record of all of these ballots. And so, as a double-check given the highly unusual nature of the glitch, all of those ballots should be impounded and counted.
Who wants to bet that the paper record will be consumed in a fire that will start with an electrical short in Nickolaus’s personal computer?
Update: I’ve been looking for a conservative blogger with enough integrity to admit that the “found” vote episode at least warrants some suspicion. I have not found one. This include Ann Althouse, who earlier this week was pushing every rumor of Democratic voter fraud as hard as she could. But she has expressed no incredulity whatsoever over the circumstances of the “found” votes. Not that Althouse’s utter partisan hypocrisy should surprise anyone.
Welcome to our new country “AmericanBananistan.”
As for the paper record, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said:
“Owh, Jeeeez. Sowrry ’bout that, there isn’t one, eh. We were sew excited we had ourselves a ticker tape parade right then there at my hoome and owffice. Shooooot, if I’d only knowed you’d get sooo upset, I’d’ve saved ’em, eh? Right! Better luck next time…” *
*Obviously a fictional recreation.
But how fictional we’ve yet to find out.
When did that democrat pollster who agrees with the results get on walkers payroll.
This alleged democrat appears to be a fantasy generated on the Right somewhere.
dude,
Probably right after all of the Democratic Strategists and Advisors got on the Republican payroll.
It’s easy money.
And, you know, it doesn’t matter. It’s like Nader said, there’s NO difference between the two parties.
Dude, pollsters don’t do recounts. No recount has occurred yet. None of the many, many questions about this incident have been investigated by the appropriate authorities. Thus, yours is a completely false “argument.”
I think an interesting clue is that the MSM doesn’t even appear to be aware of this turn of events. It filtered into the left blogosphere via their monitoring of the right blogosphere and hate radio. Which accounts for two things: 1) the strong aroma of rot to the entire story; and 2) the sudden appearance of hard-of-thinking trolls to these posts on the subject.
For the FOIA, I think all public servants should be miked for streaming audio.
Yeah, and their computer strokes, too. And maybe a camera for everything ‘cept the bathroom. I want to know what they watch on tv, how they yell at their kids and what silly websites they visit.
If I remember the date correctly, ‘voting’ monitors from the UN (they often monitor first-time democratic elections) asked to ‘monitor’ some precincts in our 2006 presidential election and were turned down. How’s that from a country that advertises itself as the ‘inventor’ of the democratic voting process. And, how’s that for suspecting nefarious deeds in Wisconsin’s recent election.
Felicity,
Well, in all honesty, I don’t wonder that the UN was turned down from monitoring some of our precincts in the 2006 Presidential.
It was an off year!
(Sorry!!! You know I love you, Felicity! I just could’t let that one pass.) 🙂
This alleged democrat appears to be a fantasy generated on the Right somewhere.
Pretty much. From the Wisconsin State Journal:
In other words, it appears the scheme was cooked up during the day yesterday.
This is really exhausting, one of those votes from the county was mine. We’ve been none stop intensity for about three months now. I gotta say, defending your fundamental rights is a bitch. Brookfield is a major city in Waukesha County, and even more red than the rest of the county. No Way it gets over looked by some political partisan looking for votes for the GOP. My mind says, “They wouldn’t try this”, but then think of what we’ve been up against the last three months and my gut tells me, “Yeah, they’d do that. They have no respect for the rules of law. They only care about winning.”
And maybe a camera for everything ‘cept the bathroom.
Well, when you got people like the former Congressman Larry Craig maybe putting cameras in the bathrooms ain’t such a bad idea.
IOKIYAAR
Speaking as a liberal, and a long-time reader, and a Milwaukeean, the votes in question are legit and real. It is not fraud. Yes, the numbers were reported on Tuesday, on the City of Brookfield’s website and to local press (by the city clerk). But the city is not the official reporter in Wisconsin elections; the county is. And the county clerk did not, in fact, report Brookfield’s numbers on Tuesday night when she released figures to the AP and other media outlets. It was presumed they were in the count, but they just weren’t there.
There remains a very, very slim chance that the votes were double-counted, but I would not take that bet if I were you.
As for conservatives who have problems with the clerk and her actions, here’s a local one who’s been agitating for her ouster for some time.
But my appeal, as a Wisconsin Democrat, to you national figures is to stop spreading the conspiracy baloney. It’s bad enough some local groups and figures are at it. What we really need is help funding the recalls, which are about to be eclipsed by a goose chase of a recount.
All the wingnut arguments I’ve seen in various comment threads hold this mysterious Democrat as “proof” that everything was on the up and up. This particular thread is the only place I’ve read where the Dem is merely a pollster and not some state official – and so I’m confused about this.
OT, I saw this on Daily Kos (excerpted from RollingStone), but it’s Matt Taibai hitting some high notes in describing Paul Ryan:
I’ve seen many photos this week of Ryan waving his budget document, and I must admit Taibbi describes my visceral dislike of the guy, and why. It all snapped into place for me, Ryan is a weenie, just like other young conservative guys I’ve had the misfortune to know.
@folkbum, your point is well taken. I’ve read other reports by locals saying much the same thing.
folkbum, please provide links to support what you are saying. You completely contradict the narrative of events as I have read them everywhere else– and I’ve gone directly to the Milwaukee and Madison newspapers for my information.
And to my knowledge, no one is saying the votes were “double-counted;” reliable sources continue to raise the question whether Nickolaus just created them.
buckyblue, with your on-site personal experience, I’d love to hear your take on folkbum’s comment.
What reliable sources, joanr16? I’m here, and following this closely.
Here, for example, is a local reporter (whom I know and trust) posting from Brookfield City hall shortly after midnight election night. Those numbers are exactly the numbers added yesterday.
This (pdf) is the City of Brookfield results, in a document created at 10PM election night and uploaded then.
Is it ugly and suspicious? Yes. Do I think there should still be a recount to rule out double-counting? Yes. But were these votes “invented” by a Prosser devotee to save him once Kloppenburg declared victory? No. That’s fantasy.
Negotiating with Republicans is like negotiating with terrorists.
I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories…but I don’t have any faith in the integrity of Wisconsin repuglicans. I agree with buckyblue’s assessment that winning is their main objective, and we should be very very leery of anything they try to present as truthful. We’ve seen their deceits openly so why shouldn’t we expect their lies and deceits to continue under the cover of an assured uncertainty of truthfulness.
Oh, amend that!…” I don’t have faith in the integrity of ANY Repuglicans”
Apparently my comment from last night is sitting in mod limbo, so I’ll try it again without embedding the links:
What reliable sources, joanr16? I’m here, and following this closely.
Here, for example, is a local reporter (whom I know and trust) posting from Brookfield City hall shortly after midnight election night. Those numbers are exactly the numbers added Thursday.
http://brookfield-wi.patch.com/articles/brookfield-gives-prosser-nearly-11k-votes
This pdf is the City of Brookfield results, in a document created at 10PM election night and uploaded then.
http://www.ci.brookfield.wi.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1542
One link not in my moderated post last night, a story from Saturday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about how vote totals match voter rolls from Tuesday:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119519294.html
Is it ugly and suspicious? Yes. Do I think there should still be a recount to rule out double-counting? Yes. But were these votes “invented†by a Prosser devotee to save him once Kloppenburg declared victory? No. That’s fantasy.
Okay, I guess that’s two comments now waiting in moderation limbo, joanr16, with the documentation you requested. Let me repeat: I am a Democrat, a Kloppenburg supporter, and Barbara has known me forever (in blog years), who lives in Wisconsin and is on top of this story. There is no fraud here.
I think folkbum probably has it right. I can’t believe they would do something this blatant nor stupid. But then again, it is republicans. My belief that there may be something here is based on my total distrust of WI republicans under Walker and how stupid they are, rather than, you know, facts. The real deals are the recalls and I have read in some comments on local blogs that the voting night blunder was done to throw cold water on them. If that was the case, I believe you would have some type of criminal charge for the County Clerk who willfully misled the public by holding onto votes. And if they thought it would demoralize the dems it has done the opposite, given even more reason to get out there and gather signatures. Just another in what seems to be an endless list of examples that we are governed in this state by a bunch of reactionary neanderthals. There will be some who will never believe that Prosser was actually elected and that the election was not stolen. Folkbum: congrats on the new county exec, must be a good feeling after, what, six years of Scott Walker.
folkbum and buckyblue,
Thanks for the info.
It still concerns me, regardless of the the fact that it looks as if there was no hanky-panky here, that in elections all over this country, there is still even any appearance of impropriety.
This is inexcusable!
Also inexcusable, are the efforts by Conservatives around this country to disenfranchise voters and cage votes. – and play around with ID laws, to ensure the least amount of people show up to vote, and that only the oldest and whitest among those votes should count.
We are truly becoming a Third World Country – as I said earlier – AmericanBananistan.
And finally, this clerk needs to be dismissed from her position, and if she has any competence in any field of expertise, find her a job there – with a massive pay cut.
It looks like this is just the latest example of her either not doing her job, or not doing it right.
She might be able to find something appropriate in the food service industry.
God, would you really want her anywhere near anyone’s food?
Maybe make her the Warden at the WI Snipe Hunting Range.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt
She’s already a wingnut welfare recipient; I’m sure she’ll fall upward to the WISGOP or RNC.
folkbum, as I said, the Milwaukee and Madison newspapers were my sources. As of Friday their news stories (and opinion pieces) weren’t offering any corroboration of the “found” vote count. Outside of WI, the media (except for Fox News) are ignoring the sudden reversal of outcome, or at least (CNN, for instance) fail to provide clear information on how the reversal came about.
In the Wisconsin newspapers, the analysis has been self-contradictory; the situation both is and is not a “miscount”; Prosser has clearly won, and his win is clearly questionable. That leaves me convinced the found/misreported votes need intense scrutiny.
It sounds like the recount ought to be limited to the city of Brookfield, to clear up the confusion. If all the votes are found, game over. If they aren’t (which sounds unlikely from what you’re saying), only then would a full recount be justified. I won’t hold my breath.
If Prosser has been re-elected, I’m really sorry to hear it. I wish Wisconsin better luck in the future. I hope the recalls succeed.