Rep. Baldwin {D, WI} Asks Feds To Investigate Waukesha Co.

[iwishiwas]

Source: Channel 3000.com




Rep. Baldwin Asks Feds To Investigate Waukesha Co.
Letter Sent To Attorney General Questions Handling Of Voting Records

Updated: 12:14 pm CDT April 9, 2011

MADISON, Wis. -- Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a federal investigation into the questionable handling of vote records in Waukesha County.

"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," Baldwin said in the letter. "They fear, as I do, that political interests are manipulating the results."

A message left by The Associated Press at Holder's office Saturday wasn't immediately returned.

To assure public confidence in our democratic election process and guarantee that votes are fairly counted and reported, Baldwin asked Holder to assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section, a department oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes.....

Read more: http://www.channel3000.com/politics/27488788/detail.html

---

I think an unbiased FED investigation is warranted.

[Kingofalldems]

1. K and R for action

[pocoloco]

35. Should have saved the stamp.

[tomp]

62. exactly. and why can't this be handled in wisconsin.

what does wisconsin election law say?

why is koppelburg not citing the law on this matter?

if wisconsin law has any meaning at all, such a break in the chain of vote tabulation must be illegal.

[Grown2Hate]

2. Ok, I need help, because CLEARLY I missed something...

I've been scouring DU and other news sites looking for info on the election that (I thought) we won the other night in Wisconsin (Kloppenburg). So WTF happened? I've been out of the news for a few days and now I can't figure out what the deal is, despite all the threads about it.

[Release The Hounds]

4. Basically

The Waukesha County Clerk made a mistake and didn't 'save' on her computer or somehow missed about 14,000 votes from the City of Brookfield. The 'error' was discovered on Wed and reported on Thursday that these 14,000 votes were not reported Tuesday night. About 7,000 more of these lost votes were cast for Prosser giving him the lead now over Kloppenburg's unofficial 200 vote lead.

[Merlot]

6. My theory: they needed time to rig the votes

Finding this "mistake" gave them time to either add additional votes, change the tally, destroy ballots or whatever it took.

Since they knew this race was going to be close, they probably kept Waukesha as an "easter egg" if they needed it.

Remember, the county clerk is a partisan position, and she has a history of impropriety, including keeping the votes on her outdated computer.

[elocs]

8. You can change the tally with a few keystrokes, but you cannot simply change the paper trail

which Wisconsin law requires. So diddle with the tally all you like, but there had better be the paper to back up that tally or it's worthless.

[Bjorn Against]

11. But they only check the paper trail if there is a court order to do so

If they don't check the paper trail then the paper trail is useless, we have to hope the courts agree to a hand recount because if that does not happen these results will always be suspect.

[zbdent]

20. paper trail may be a bit interesting to try to find, too ...

check out what "shraby" had to say about the "paper trail" on my thread ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x842378

[whathehell]

9. Didn't she also decide to keep the vote tabulator in her PRIVATE office,

supposedly for "security" purposes?:eyes:

Beyond her past, that's the "red flag" that really called out to me.

[Gin Blossom]

24. I love the "for security purposes" bit.

I just thought of an analogy: "Of course the hen house was totally secured. The only wolf allowed in there was authorized."

[whathehell]

29. LOL...

Love the analogy!

[zbdent]

19. AND ... the number of votes gained for Prosser from that city

put the "win" at just barely over the number of votes needed to prevent a taxpayer-funded recount, which meant that Kloppenburg would have to fund the recount.

[Merlot]

21. Due to the "amateur hour" procedures - some of which break laws?

I'd think the recount should be on the counties tab.

[iwishiwas]

27. But why did she wait over a DAY to say something? anything??

[PatrynXX]

30. which of course can't happen if your using Access

Hence the doubt. I know someone said such and such a number in the main city isn't wrong however, the doubt remains.

Access auto saves..

[Bjorn Against]

5. A partisan Republican county clerk with a history of election problems "found" 14,000 votes

This county clerk supposedly found these votes on Wednesday, but sat on the "error" for 29 hours before letting state election officials know, she did however tell the National Review and some right-wing bloggers. This same county clerk wrote software for the Republican Party to determine Republican turnout in each ward across the state, Prosser was her former boss. Since she became county clerk numerous election irregularities have occured on her watch, this is not the first time she flipped an election based on a "human error", her office has also sent out sample ballots which were already marked for her favorite candidates another thing she claimed to be a "mistake resulting from human error". She conducted her elections differently than any other county in the state, instead of using the central system the rest of the county uses she tabulates the results on her personal PC with no backup, and despite warnings that her system was insecure she has resisted any attempts to audit her in the past and has ignored the advice of election officials. The whole thing stinks, and has magically given Prosser a 7,000 vote lead.

[KansDem]

10. It seems to be conducting state business on a private computer should be taboo...

She conducted her elections differently than any other county in the state, instead of using the central system the rest of the county uses she tabulates the results on her personal PC with no backup, and despite warnings that her system was insecure she has resisted any attempts to audit her in the past and has ignored the advice of election officials.

...and should therefore nullify the results.

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. Especially if that Private computer is owned by someone who use to work for PROSSER.

I'm just saying.

[golfguru]

46. Only true if town of Brookfield votes were added twice

From what I gather, the official vote tally had zero votes from
town of Brookfield. It is virtually impossible that no one from
Brookfield voted in this election with all the publicity going on.

Huffpost article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/09/wisconsin-election-bombshell_n_847000.html

[fasttense]

59. Yeah but......

How do you know that the votes were what she claimed they were? How do you know that the RepubliCON vote was NOT suppressed and that Democratic votes were higher? Or how do you know she did NOT rig other precincts? There could be some Democratic votes that never got counted in other precincts. She has 13 years experience in voter data manipulation.

The only proof you have that the votes she suddenly found are an accurate representation of votes is her word.

This is so obvious and in your face fraud. Yet people actually believe this clerk.

[golfguru]

75. All your questions are valid

I am going by what read from Nate Silver's article on this issue.
He knows a lot more about voting trends than I will ever know.

[wiscomanbearpig]

65. county clerk does not 'count' any votes at all

A lot of uniformed posters here who are obviously not familiar with Wisconsin elections or the role each county clerk plays in reporting the results. The county clerk does not count a single vote, they are the entity that aggregates and reports the votes for their county. Each community in the county is responsible for counting and reporting the vote totals from their polling places to the county clerk, who then passes those results on (in this case to the AP, which then compiles the results and reports them to the public).

In this case the incompetent county clerk did not accurately report the votes for her county, because she failed to include the votes from Brookfield. The City of Brookfield had the results from their city right on their own website the next day (wed), but they were not included in the totals sent to AP and the state on the night of the election. Right wing blogger had already raised a red flag by 1pm, on Wednesday saying the Waukesha County votes appeared too low by 10-14,000 votes. He arrived at that figure by comparing the largest 10 counties vote totals in this election vs the November election. The dropoff in the spring election vs last November was very consistent in every county but Waukesha, where the dropoff was far above the other counties. Then he started checking vote totals from the largest communities in Waukesha Count (New Berlin, Waukesha, Brookfield, etc) He went to every communities website and got the vote totals and it was soon apparent that a large mistake had occurred somewhere. Every communities turnout was where he calauclated it would be based on comparing to last Novembers election, but when totaled up, the entire COUNTY numbers did not make sense. The reason is obvious now and not because the clerk found votes.

Yesterday, Kloppenberg had a large contingent examining all the voting records in Waukesha County. At the end of the day even they could not point to any signs of anything other than incompetence on the part of the county clerk.

Now, as for getting the federal gov't involved, those outside Wisconsin should know we have no elected election commission. The entity tasked with overseeing the elction is the Gov't Accountability Board (GAB). The board is APPOINTED, but before you claim with Walker as governor it is stacked, you should also know Walker has not appointed any members of the GAB. Every member on the board was appointed by the previous Governor Doyle, a democrat.

So before you claim fraud, let the process play out With Kloppenbergs people examining the details in Waukesha County, and the gAB controlled by all Doyle appointeees, if their is a problem other than an incompetent county clerk, it will be found.

The truth is obvious already to all but those who can't handle the truth.

[RedCloud]

69. Are you bashing our military "A lot of uniformed posters here" Mr. One time poster?

And when we investigate we may find lots of naughty things along the way.

[freshwest]

3. Wiil be waiting to see if Holder acts... It would have to be soon, so much depends on it.

[CrispyQ]

12. The DOJ is busy busting marijuana dispensaries.

:eyes:

[freshwest]

14. Big pharma hates competition.

[howmad1]

34. Yea, right. Holder acting immediately.

This useless peice of crap hasn't done a damn thing to protect and defend the rights of citizens in this country.

[golfguru]

47. Holder was seen driving over speed limit towards Wisconsin

May be he just got lost on the way.

[kimsarah]

52. Maybe

he stopped at a yard sale to pick up a pair of comfortable shoes for his boss.

[golfguru]

74. lol n/t

[Grown2Hate]

7. Thank you all for the info. This stinks as bad as FL and OH. K&R NT

[AsahinaKimi]

13. I seem to recall some film a few years back

Showing two guys dumping votes into a huge garbage dumpster. One wonders about a paper trail, and if it can be found, especially under original tactics suggested probably by Karl Rove.

[LiberalFighter]

18. There should be some bit of redundancy in an audit

Number of ballots printed, used, not used, and voided.

Number of numbered slips identifying voter count printed, used, and not used.

Number of voters crossed off of the voter roll.

Record of Democratic judge pollworker for vote tallies.

Record of Republican judge pollworker for vote tallies.

Comparison between State SC Judge votes and other elections held.

[zeemike]

15. I am waiting to see what he will do with this request.

Probably drop it in the waste can....but we will see.

[live love laugh]

67. Agree. nt

[freebrew]

16. Other threads point out...

the REAL problem won't be in that county, but in others.
Rovian tactics dictate that this is a diversion from the real problem.
The entire state needs investigating!

[Bjorn Against]

17. That theory seems to have picked up some additional credibility today

The campaign manager for Justice David Prosser said Saturday he was open to a recount of votes in Waukesha County.

"If you need to do a recount in Waukesha (county) and Waukesha (county) alone to satisfy heightened interest, that's fine," said Brian Neimor. "We believe it will only affirm the margin of victory we now enjoy."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119486574.html

If they think every other county is just fine then they would not oppose recounts in every other county except Waukesha, it seems a full recount would only help them add credibility if they were truly confident the results would hold. In Minnesota when Mark Dayton won the election with a similar margin he welcomed the state-wide hand recount with open arms because he was confident and he knew the recount would only add to the credibility of his election, if Prosser is opposed to a recount it suggests to me that he is not at all confident that he would win.

[Major Hogwash]

43. Wow, good point.

It should be statewide. This is going to get really nasty in about a week.

[kimsarah]

54. Good point

That is his (their) tactic.

[Enthusiast]

56. I believe you are right.

Look over here, while we do our damage off stage.

[kestrel91316]

22. Holder will decline to investigate. You heard it here first. It's obvious

to me who runs things in this country, and it ain't liberals.

[NCcoast]

28. You beat me to it.

Eric 'see no evil' Holder, the toothless tiger, won't be looking into this one.

[Initech]

23. It's Bush V. Gore, round II.

[valerief]

25. I'm SO tired of investigations that go nowhere and change nothing.

Only one thing can trigger change, only one thing ever has, and we're not allowed to say it explicitly on DU. If we could only do to the tyrants what they do to the people. And what do they do? Make people sick and keep them from getting better. Take homes from people and make them survive without shelter until they can't survive anymore. Dirty the food, air, and water to kill people faster. Kill hope.

[Matariki]

32. "Make people sick and keep them from getting better"

I've been thinking about that a lot. My sister is struggling with thyroid cancer right now. She sent me an article about how the area where she lives has the highest rate of thyroid cancer in the country - due to the large number of nuclear reactors there. She's lucky that she has health insurance. There are so many there people who don't have it and have to face having cancer entirely on their own - caused by something that could have been avoided and is largely due to a small number of people's stupidity and greed.

I keep getting angry that the very people who make the decisions that make people sick are the very ones who are blocking single payer health care and want to cut medicare/medicaid.

[AlbertCat]

26. Holder might pay attention....

.... if she had added she thinks they are all using medical marijuana.

[wordpix]

40. Hopefully he won't bend to the repukes' "recall Holder" movement

and play nicey nice with these conspirators.

[Matariki]

33. It will be interesting to see how he responds to this.

In fact, I might very well base my final opinion of the Obama administration on his actions.

[pacalo]

36. So she obviously thinks a handcount wouldn't be enough. Awesome!

[demgrrrll]

37. As I noted on another thread go to the brad blog and watch

her press conference. I think she has a "tell" She makes a closed fist and puts the fist in front of her mouth when she is talking She did that motion twice when responding to two questions. I also noted a kind of smirky in the bag subtext in her eyes. I think she thinks this is over and what are ya gonnna do about it punks.

[iwishiwas]

38. Why did RW talk shows know about early and NOT her co-workers who were in the room?

...........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

[wordpix]

42. she sat on the information for 29 hrs. so she could work up something with RoverNorquist

and Co.

Calling BushCo, Calling BushCo, red alert!

[Imagevision]

39. Why doesn't Kloppenburg ask for support to fund a recount?

[tomp]

63. why doesn't she cite wisconsin law on the matter? nt

[AllyCat]

41. My representative!!! Thank you Ms. Baldwin!

[rhett o rick]

44. Why do I think the WH will not let this investigation to continue? nm

[iwishiwas]

45. Why?do you think that?

[golfguru]

48. may be because of this

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/09/wisconsin-election-bombshell_n_847000.html

[kimsarah]

51. I read that

piece of garbage. That writer has a future at Faux News. Just another "human error" is no excuse in this particular case, considering the background of that county and clerk. A lot of us smell a rat, and it looks like the rats are all coming out to defend each other.

[golfguru]

53. So you accept the premise that the town of Brookfield

all stayed home on election day and registered 0 votes?
Because that is what the official tally showed. That incompetent lady
missed reporting the votes from Brookfield entirely.

[kimsarah]

55. I accept the premise

that a full statewide recount and investigation into why that county's dishonest mistake occurred would shed a new light on the whole issue. Now I'm thinking there was shenanigans in other counties. Silly me. Anyhow, this week ahead should be interesting!

[golfguru]

70. I won't hold my breath n/t

[sulphurdunn]

60. Hardly incompetent.

The lady merely sequestered the Brookfield votes until she knew how many Prosser needed to win without having to face a recount. Furthermore, if the history of close electronic elections controlled by Republicans is any indication, Brookfield is most likely a diversion from more egregious felonies.

[golfguru]

71. Your premise is entirely possible & believable

but not of the poster above who accepts the premise that
entire town of Brookfield stayed home on election day.

[iwishiwas]

58. Why did she wait so long to have the press conference? Even Kennedy,

did not know till Thrus. afternoon. Even the few people in her office did NOT know! RW radio talk show hosts knew before they did.

[golfguru]

72. You want to know what I think?

She held those 14,000 votes back purposely! She knew very well
there was or would be thousands of surplus votes for Prosser there.
So she waited until all the dem precincts reported the votes, so
there was no chance of additional votes being found.

[rhett o rick]

73. That would be looking back and the Pres clearly told us that he wont do that. nm

[BrightKnight]

49. an email response from the FBI in Milwaukee:

"...local elections are the jurisdiction of local law enforcement officials. You should direct your concern to the local District Attorney."

That is contrary to what was posted on their own web page. The page indicates that they investigate major fraud in local, state and federal elections.

Either they think election fraud is funny or they believe that it is politically too hot to touch. It is not.

[sulphurdunn]

61. Most likely the fix

was in on this nationally before the first vote was cast locally.

[tomp]

64. law and law enforcement usually follows money. nt

[lutefisk]

66. That will likely be Holder's response, too. Or he'll simply ignore the request...nt

[kimsarah]

50. Justice for all

My understanding is the Justice Dept. could get involved. It is ultimately the federal dept. responsible for fair and correct elections. Odds are, they will wait first for Wis. Board of Elections to handle the supposed recount, and its legal team to handle challenges on both sides. The elected Elections Board members would then issue their ruling, appealable to the state Supreme Court. Of course, then any challenge would go to Scalia and his friends. But I don't think that process precludes Holder from ordering an investigation, asked for by that state's attorney general or a member of Congress. My guess is Holder won't do anything, except continue his crusade against small-time pot farmers and innocent environmental groups.

[BlueJac]

57. My guess is, Holder will do nothing.......

the fear of the right wing is why we are at this point.

[PuffedMica]

68. K&R