Citizen Action Calls for Federal Investigation into Vote Count Irregularities in Waukesha C

[kpete]

Source: Citizen Action

Citizen Action Calls for Federal Investigation into Vote Count Irregularities in Waukesha County
For Immediate Release—Thursday, April 7, 2011, 7:52 PM
Contact: Robert Kraig [phone]

Call for Federal Investigation into Vote Count Irregularities in Waukesha County

...............................

While it is far too early to judge all the facts of the situation, there are so many apparent discrepancies and contradictions in the currently available fact-base that a full, impartial, and independent investigation is clearly warranted. These warning signs that should trigger a full and independent investigation include:

· During her press conference Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus claimed this was an open and transparent process. Yet According to Nickolaus she found out about this at noon yesterday. She then sat on this information for 29 hours before disclosing it.

· According to 3 observers who attended the county vote canvass, the issue of 14,315 additional votes from Brookfield never came up in the room.

While it was hidden from the people in the room, others involved in the process, Charlie Sykes, a representative of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, National Review, and conservative bloggers had the story hours before it was announced

Read more: http://citizenactionwi.org/myblog/citizen-action-calls-for-federal-investigation-into-vote-count-irregularities-in-waukesha-county.html

[LisaM]

1. Interesting points

I also noticed that all of the information coming out prior to the press conference was from conservative websites, which I found strange. I discounted the information at that point.

[Bound by Honor]

2. More reason to arrest and indict Ms. Kathy Nikolaus

for election fraud.

The 14,000 found votes will not be allowed in once the truth is revealed.

[SnakeEyes]

37. Quite the bold claim without evidence of fraud

Surely you don't support arrest before evidence?

[Bound by Honor]

40. She's a confirmed liar. She said she "forgot to save" on Access - bullshit.

Microsoft Access are disk-based database, so once inputted, it is automatically saved.

And there is the question of her "voting setup" of one personal computer and in control of the County Clerk who happens to be a fiercely partisan Republican. She has worked for Prosser before.

[SnakeEyes]

45. She was using Access?

I haven't seen that

[Frank Cannon]

75. She admitted as much in her press conference.

And yes, in case you had any doubt, she's a goddamned liar.

[eridani]

68. Yes--if theire is what they call "probable cause"

Probable cause should trigger the investigation to actually discover evidence one way or another.

[tomp]

76. before jumping to conclusions....

....do you know the wisconsin law in the chain of voting data?

it should be child's play for koppelburg herself to identify the applicable legal issue.

everything i've seen points to a deviation from normal vote tabulation procedures.

an investigation is OBVIOUSLY in order. you're not opposed to that, are you?

[tcaudilllg]

90. A thorough investigation is required. The question is whether Obama will do it.

Although it shouldn't be in his hands. I urge Obama's staff to rebel against him in the event of conflicts of interest.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. There should be a court order to secure

ALL voting machines and ballots under lock and key and armed guard until a recount can be done. The recount should involve computer forensic specialists as well.

[Iliyah]

5. At this point

I would not put anything pass Heil Walker and his generals and minons. Wouldn't it be something if it was revealed they in fact altered the votes? WOW

[SnakeEyes]

55. the city posted their results on their website on election night

it matches the numbers being brought up now.

[rzemanfl]

93. Of course, but they might be in the totals elsewhere entered

"incorrectly through human error" on election night then held in reserve to flip the outcome if needed. I don't trust this woman at all.

[KansDem]

86. We're taking about a Governor who entertained the notion of bringing in thugs to cause trouble...

...and had another Repub official suggest a bogus assassination plot to drum up sympathy for the governor's cause.

I agree: you cannot put anything past Walker and his mob...

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Javaman]

7. both. nt

[defendandprotect]

12. Well, certainly right wing propaganda does work!! Think we need anti-propaganda training!!

One of the things I continued to notice over my long period of reading

was how few of the books in the past 20 years talked about rw propaganda!!

Only recently have they begun to do so!!


It's a direct line to short-circuit thinking -- to create an emotional response!!

And people don't usually figure it out until long afterwards!!

[AlbertCat]

28. Think we need anti-propaganda training!!

It's called "critical thinking".

Can't be taught to the general public. Make things like religions look as irrational as they are.

[defendandprotect]

71. We also need responses from Democrats to it ....

Was there ever a Dem response to "Welfare Queen" -- ?

or Social Security as a "Ponzi Scheme" per the Wall St. Journal?

Recall "Partial Birth Abortion" -- it took years and years, but finally

women responded with "Partial Truth Abortion"!!

[timtom]

78. Many of us Christians here on DU

certainly DO employ critical thinking. That may be the reason we don't make broad, sweeping assumptions about any group (except right-wingers, of course).

[neoralme]

10. Both.

[defendandprotect]

14. In case you don't see reply above --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4806440&mesg_id=4806540

[Atman]

48. What are you talking about? Voting computers in the 1960s

Only one person at a time allowed in the polling place because the VoteMaster66 took up the entire remaining floor space. Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

[Javaman]

6. She sat on the information for 29 hours...

oh what was done during that 29 hours.

[defendandprotect]

15. Remember that pre the LARGE computers used by MSM, they could only report ACTUAL votes!!

MSM has pushed for the instant knowing of winners!!

And that only serves the rightwing --

Many countries don't know results for a week!!


See: Votescam -- The Stealing of America --

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm


Many people think computers have only been a problem since 2000 --

actually they began to come in during the 1960's ...

[janet118]

26. But they used to conduct exit polls . . .

Since they all came up "wrong" when compared with "actual" votes in 2000, they stopped doing them. Remember the networks calling the race for Gore and then changing their predictions when the votes were way off the exit polling results.

Yet exit polls have long been shown to be the most accurate indicators of actual votes prior to that election. If we still did them, they would serve as indicators of which election results were sketchy. But that would be inconvenient, wouldn't it.

The telling thing is that most of the "errors" were weighted against the Democratic side. If they were random, it would not be that way. So we began to hear about voters lying to exit pollsters because they were ashamed to admit they voted Republican. While I can certainly see why those GOP voters should be embarrassed, from my experience Republican voters love bragging about their candidates.

[SnakeEyes]

38. Um, they still have exit polling

They still call races before the votes are in. Weren't you watching in Nov? However, it costs lots of money, research, time and people and so it is not done for every race... and even prior to 2000 wasn't done for every race.

[defendandprotect]

69. LARGE computers came in during mid-1960's .....

Not sure if they were doing exit polls then -- certainly polls --

and understand and agree with what you're saying about why they're gone -- too accurate!!

However, the exit polls were never able to REVERSE a PREDICTION or CALL as happened in 2000!

The LARGE computers gave MSM the power to PREDICT and CALL elections, ELECTORAL COLLEGE votes,

WINNERS and LOSERS -- and we simply saw a REVERSAL of those new powers in 2000.


The telling thing is that most of the "errors" were weighted against the Democratic side. If they were random, it would not be that way. So we began to hear about voters lying to exit pollsters because they were ashamed to admit they voted Republican. While I can certainly see why those GOP voters should be embarrassed, from my experience Republican voters love bragging about their candidates.

Well, right wing propaganda certainly works -- not on everyone, however --

Obviously, your BS meter is set higher than average! :)

Also ironic that while it is the Democrats who are usually on the losing end of these steals,

they seem quite happy to ignore it all! In fact, voting computers seem to be a taboo subject

for them.





PS: The ABA also used to give us their "opinion" on SC nominees -- until their opinion of

Clarence Thomas was so low that the GOP made sure they weren't heard from again re nominees!

[Zambero]

50. Spent making travel arrangements

for a fun trip to Cali?

[Mnemosyne]

8. K&R for truth. n/t

[Roland99]

9. Like this admin and its DOJ would do anything of substance

excuse me while I don't hold my breath.

[drm604]

11. K&R

Maybe, just maybe, this time there will be a proper investigation and we'll know the truth, whatever it is.

However, I'm not holding my breath.

[SnakeEyes]

39. It wont be hard to find out

All they have to do is verify the ballot counts and recount the ballots. It will be very easy to see if an entire city was missing or not.

[Jackpine Radical]

80. Oops-wrong. Self-delete.

[TxVietVet]

13. charlie psycho sykes is a rabid conservanazi propagandists.

Now, he knew of what was going on before the press did. Then, it's a conservanazi plot to create votes for thier guy. psyco sykes had a hand in it. he's the premier conservanazi in Wisconsin followed by mark belling, Hispanic hater.

The citizens of Wisconsin need to pursue this to the very end. It's an injustice and a violation of voting rights.

[freshwest]

22. Yup!

[louslobbs]

32. +1000

lou

[murielm99]

16. Right after is was announced that Kloppenburg won by

two hundred some votes and she declared victory, someone here did a screen capture of Prosser's website. They saved it before he could change it. It had words about preserving his victory. At that point, he did not have a victory. Someone needs to pass this along to the investigation, too. This reminds me of "What did he know and when did he know it?" Of course, the same question is being raised for Nickolaus and the conservative bloggers. Everyone needs to questioned under oath.

[Botany]

25. Still there

After a challenging battle in which a historic number of votes were cast in a
Supreme Court race, we need your help in preserving a victory for Justice David Prosser.



http://www.justiceprosser.com/

[midnight]

57. I can't remember the exact wording, but Prosser was on T.V. saying that this

thing was not over.. It was an odd thing he said... Anyone else remember him indicating that som thing was not finished?

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[sulphurdunn]

18. This would be laughable bullshit

if it wasn't the kind of corruption that eventually leads to either civil war or despotism. What's happening here is another transparent attempt to steal an election by the Republican Party. Apparently, the rightwing has become so confident of its power that it feels no need even to use subterfuge anymore, just presto changeo, suddenly just enough new votes magically appear to throw the election to their guy days after the election has ended. If this stands, then any hope of peaceful change through democratic means has become an impossibility, and people need to realize it and make the rightwing tremble with the fear of them.

[bergie321]

20. We didn't rise up

When the Presidency was stolen.

Do you honestly believe that Americans will turn off their "reality" teevee shows for some judge in Wisconsin?

[Jackpine Radical]

81. Cheeseheads will.

I haven't met anybody yet, from either side of the political fence, who thinks the Waukesha County show was legit. Even My Favorite Wingnut is laughing in disgust about the blatancy of it all. He'll stay with the Teabaggers nevertheless, because they do a better job of giving him his daily hate fix. He rationalizes it all with "Both sides do it."

[murielm99]

30. Civil war or despotism.

The people of Wisconsin have been peaceful and responsible. But people can be pushed too far. It's probably a good thing that I live south of their border right now. I am not in a peaceful frame of mind.

[Doctor_J]

66. It will be despotism. We're too cowardly to fight

That should be abundantly clear by now.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

19. Was a Dem in the room when Nickolaus "discovered" the problem?

A few interesting bits from Kathy Nickolaus's press conference video yesterday:

(time in video noted - appx)
7:32 - A 30% voter turn out had been estimated but the actual turnout was 47%

10:35 - Asked if the results changed in any other Waukesha election races after the canvass. "The same winners came out. It didn't change the-uh-the outcome of that race"

12:00 - Asked when she discovered the error. "We discovered it yesterday in the process of a canvass". Stammers and stutters when she tells of discovering the problem

13:00 - Asked if there was a Democrat in the room. More stammering... "We do have a Democrat and a Republican - one of each". Reporter asks to speak to the Dem. (Ramona Kitzinger). Nickolaus hedges - mumbles "are you comfortable?" to Kitzinger...Ramona steps up.

14:05 - Reporter asked Kitzinger when she was told there was a problem. "Well, I found out after I came in to do the canvass." Nickolaus jumps in and takes over, saying: "When we go through the canvass process, when we find errors throughout the day we cross em off an make changes to it. Once we verified Brookfield then I knew that we needed to discuss (stammer) the uploading part a little later".

16:30 - Nickolaus states they canvassed from noon to 5 pm then from 9:00 pm worked continuously except for a few breaks and lunch.. Votes were verified late night


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldCVBB-ruKY

[The Wizard]

63. Waterboard her

It's OK with Republicans, really. I heard them say it, and so did you.

[pnorman]

73. k&r

I want to check the above against some other stuff later.

If Prosser actually won, I can live with that. The fact that he didn't win by a landslide was still a huge black eye for him. But there's still much that doesn't pass the Smell Test.

[Blue Owl]

21. Were the votes found on HER laptop, or were they found on a state-owned machine?

Let's get to the bottom of this troublesome tableaux.

[freshwest]

23. Yes, the notion she had any legal right to take it home with her has been neglected.

[Tx4obama]

29. They weren't votes/ballots - it was the VOTE TOTAL that was transmitted from the City of Brookfield.

It was a clerical error at the County level.
Brookfield voted the votes and transmitted the totals to Kathy Nickolaus, she didn't add them to the county total.
The vote total at the city of Brookfield did not change.

[murielm99]

72. Oh, it's you again, defending the repiggie

election theft in yet another thread.

Why am I not surprised?

[SnakeEyes]

41. Votes were not on her laptop

Her laptop was the intermediary between the ballot scanner tallies and the statewide database.

The problem was the vote results for this one city were not on her laptop, in the database, and therefore werent uploaded to the statewide totals/results database.

If her story is true.

[iwishiwas]

24. The RW press KNEW about this "hours before it was announced" She knew 29 hrs before

she announced her 'human error" WHOW>


..........During her press conference Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus claimed this was an open and transparent process. Yet According to Nickolaus she found out about this at noon yesterday. She then sat on this information for 29 hours before disclosing it.

· According to 3 observers who attended the county vote canvass, the issue of 14,315 additional votes from Brookfield never came up in the room.

While it was hidden from the people in the room, others involved in the process, Charlie Sykes, a representative of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, National Review, and conservative bloggers had the story hours before it was announced.

· Kathy Nickolaus has a long history of questionable practices in vote counting. The issue of Nicklaus keeping records on her personal computer was central to the audit conducted on her last fall. Was the “human error” she is apologizing for her own personal error made on her personal computer? She has been repeatedly warned about the danger of that process and criticized for keeping information “secret” from even others with in her own office in the past.

[louslobbs]

33. She's a lying, cheating Republicon Fraud and a Stool Pigeon to boot to save her own ass in previous

scandals. She's no different than any other lying, cheating thug, she just got caught again and it wouldn't surprise me if the Kochs and Walker come up in this investigation as well.
Lou

[iwishiwas]

89. YES. But I was thinking she leaked to RW radio before her

press conference.

[Tx4obama]

27. There is NOTHING fishy going on with the 14,000 Brookfield Wisconsin SC votes, here's why ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x841430

[elocs]

34. I think you are likely right, but DU really prefers election fraud and conspiracy as an explanation

even if it is not the truth. I think it will be found that the votes is question were actually cast but not reported. It doesn't have so much to with honesty as it does incompetence. What makes it so cruel for us is that we had thought Kloppenburg had one.

[Ellipsis]

43. ...just a crossword puzzle really.

Still, it needs to be flushed out, step by step, and it will be.

[elocs]

65. Absolutely, and I hope we can accept the results of the investigation

and not reject it because it was not the answer for which we were looking or hoping.

[StarburstClock]

47. Most people prefer facts, laws and enforcement, not broad smears of DUers

The admitted truth is that voting records were kept on a personal computer with no access allowed by anyone. Regardless of the votes on it or not, it's a violation of the public trust and easily considered election tampering by every definition that exists regarding election tampering.

[freshwest]

52. Yes, there was no excuse for her breaking chain of custody. You can't serve papers that way.

She cannot be in charge of the entire vote by herself. It stinks.

[elocs]

64. No, I'll go with the experience of having actually being at DU for years and reading posts.

DUers love accusations of vote fraud, stolen elections to a simple, incompetent screwup which is what this could turn out to be. Otherwise you would read more of those who even admit it is possible rather than an OP about that getting put down.

Putting hopes that this is some Macheavellian Republican conspiracy sets people up for either a let down again, or conviction of an even bigger conspiracy. If it really is voter fraud then that needs to be proven, otherwise I will stick with the more simple explanation until proven wrong (it would be great if that actually happened).

[rzemanfl]

87. Just another "honest Republican mistake" by a County Clerk

who used to work for the "victor." If someone were to write a Republican fairytale for the small children of Republicans about the stalwart even-handed jurist Justice Prosser versus the evil fetus-killing socialist forces of liberalism it would end in this fashion, with the magical discovery of the lost votes from the land of the Righties in the nick of time. And the corporations and bible thumpers all lived happily ever after....

Or you could just say it was "God's will"-I wouldn't believe that either.

If this was a Democratic Clerk of Court with votes for Kloppenburg the right wing talking heads would be screaming for lynch mobs.

[Bound by Honor]

42. Why don't you sod off, pal?

While we continue to look into the shenanigans of the Republicans. You're in Texas, why the hell do you care?

There are plenty of evidence that makes the Waukesha County Clerk look very, very bad - even indictable offenses. Including perjury.

[Ellipsis]

44. Welcome to DU!

[freshwest]

54. I second that remark.

[freshwest]

53. Texas is 100% GOP due to Tom Delay's gerrymandering. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Tx4obama]

58. That is not true.

Go look at the 2008 presidential election results.
Obama won the majority of our largest cities/counties: Houston/Harris, Dallas/Dallas, Austin/Travis, El Paso, San Antonio, etc.
Texas is a hell of lot more PURPLE than it is red.

[freshwest]

61. Did you read my post refering to Delay and gerrymandering? Did I mention 2008?

Was the news report of the last Democrat in the legislature in Austin switching to the GOP a false one?

BTW, native here, so not slapping the oppressed progressives of TX.

Are we cool?

[Tx4obama]

59. Wow, did your mama teach you to talk to a woman like that? I doubt it. n/t

[rzemanfl]

88. The poster should have just said "bitch" like Prosser said

to a seventy-seven year old female Supreme Court Chief Justice.

[TxVietVet]

77. Having lived in Milwaukee County and worked in every county in SE Wisconsin for over 20 years.

I must try to explain to my "TXforObama" friend.

One must learn with some cheeseheads, they don't realize when one is trying to stop them from making the wrong choice without all the information. So, trying to help is only making some in Wisconsin more irritated for they don't realize that "we are all in this together". My greatest understanding of some I've met there is that you can't tell someone who thinks he knows everything anything. :kick:

[Tx4obama]

92. Thank you for your comment. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

83. He was pointing out some points that

we had better be aware of as we process this event.

Even if it turns out to be an innocent error, I think a lot of Cheeseheads will retain the lingering suspicion, and the association betwenn Nokolaus' criminal background, Republican corruption, and the current administration will linger. This may not put Kloppenburg on the Court, but it will certainly add to the foul savor of the Republican Party in this state.

I'm still withholding judgment for reasons very similar to those expressed here. I need to see more evidence, even though every instinct in me is crying "Foul!"

[fascisthunter]

46. well then, an Investigation shouldn't find any wrong doing

you seem so sure... while ignoring the many red flags concerning the clerk and election itself.

[freshwest]

56. Wonders never cease.

[Botany]

79. There is NOTHING fishy going on ....

...... :rofl:

"It was an access data base." "It was the saving of the data." "Human error."

Access has a default save function there was no need to hit any a save key to save the data.

She is telling a bald faced lies.

[mzteris]

85. One theory has it that

they manufactured the crisis to cause the Dems/union, etc to "do something stupid"...

AND to waste time, money, energy, and resources on a hand-count that they know they're going to win.

So that would still call for an investigation in my book.

Deliberately rigging the game, period.

[Rene]

31. They need to impound her computers NOW.

I'm sure she held out a Town's results and spent hours flipping votes, with her IT knowledge, before raising the issued, and finally submitting them..
She's an IT person....but it's really not difficult to do.

[Bluzmann57]

35. I suggested that last night

in here and basically got laughed at and sneered at. So It's obvious that my voice means nothing in here but an agency of some sort carries some sort of weight. Oh well, at least someone agrees with me.

[mike3121]

36. We can not let this stand!

If the RePugs get their way on this they will roll up most of the rest of the states (RePug states anyway). They will destroy state employee collective bargaining! All the other smaller entities, ie. cities, counties will follow suit. This could be a severe disaster with repercussions that could last for years.

Remember in LOTR "Bring forth the ring," well "bring forth the lawyers."

[fascisthunter]

49. everything should be done to verify election results especially this one!

There is waaaaaay too much on the line here. Every election should be taken seriously, it's our democracy we are talking about, not some fucking game. People's lives depend on these results, while the rich goofballs complain about workers having benefits... sickening.

[slackmaster]

51. The vote count isn't finished yet. No winner has been declared yet.

I think it would be wise to wait until there is an actual result before challenging it.

[McCamy Taylor]

60. THE Math is easy. A precinct under GOP controll pulled out just enough

votes to NOT trigger an automatic recount. Why "find" so many thousands of votes after all was done rather than just a few hundreds that would be more believable? The GOP is Wisconsin is scared of a recount and is hoping that they can prevent one.That means theyt know irregularities will be found on recount.

Obama DOJ, time to man up and do your job.

[Lifelong Protester]

62. Bingo. she could have 'found' 1500 votes... but no, something

else was afoot.

I'd like to believe it was just incompetence. but I live here in WI, and I demand a FULL inquiry.

Prosser may well win, but I'm MORE upset by what the hell is going on with our voting procedures and elections. I know SEVERAL DUers who are constantly on this issue of election fraud through computer use with no paper trail. I have NO idea if that is the case here, but NOW I am more inclined to be listening to the Cassandras crying "foul" when it comes to machine controlled elections, and the dirty hands that run them.

[midnight]

67. The GAB gave her new software for the Governor's race, and

Scott Walker won by five votes I heard... Sen. Feingold was replaced by a man no one knows much about... Gee anything put into that software that could be used via a back door to access the data?

[RedCloud]

70. Conspiracy doubters take note here:

How can someone be so beastly stupid as to forget a large populated area from their county? That IS her job after all. Why didn't any of the others working with her note it?

And the margin of victory conveniently puts it past a mandatory recount. And the opposite way.

Let us not forget that in Ohio all the state votes were taken out and to Kentucky by a republican who then transmitted a shocker that Bush had won Ohio. Another tampering guy being sued is later killed in a plane crash while heading to of all paces, Washington DC

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Killed_GOP_pilot_suspected_plane_had_1222.html

[Jackpine Radical]

84. She didn't forget them.

The story is that she entered that data but it was not saved to her database. Critics are pointing out that Access, the program she used, autosaves so her explanation of bogus. I'm just waiting to see what all shakes out.

[rzemanfl]

94. Not "mandatory" just free. n/t

[patrice]

74. Can someone tell me? I still don't understand how this ONE county received special treatment that

caused it to be "forgotten" and, then, remembered.

[IamK]

82. it appears the votes were counted but not given to the AP with the other totals...

This is not going to go Kloppenburg's way and there will not be much of an investigation....Sad but the facts are fairly simple....


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x841430#841523

[opihimoimoi]

91. Something really smells .......wonder what could it be???