John Nichols: No excuses! Get the court count right

[deminks]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_bf25bdef-1175-50ec-8299-eb1975d17f25.html?sourcetrack=moreArticle

“Oh my gosh, my cat just coughed up 14,000 ballots and almost all of them were marked for JoAnne Kloppenburg.”

So goes one of the better responses to the news that the Waukesha County clerk forgot to add the votes from the county’s second-largest city into the totals for the Supreme Court race between Kloppenburg and incumbent Justice David Prosser.

(snip)

The advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin has called 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.”

That’s appropriate. But it is only a start. To resolve this mess — and from any democratic standpoint, this is a mess — there is going to need to be a full recount, no matter what the ultimate margin of victory. Whether Prosser or 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. “My cat coughed up the ballots” excuses just won’t do it.

(end snip)

[felinetta]

1. The Walker thugs have been sneaky, lying and trying to deceive everyone from the start

and there is absolutely no reason to believe anything out of
any of their pie holes.  Nothing will EVER convince me that
there are more
votes for Prossner.  They have no credibility, no conscience,
no humanity.  They are just cold reptilian creatures. Case
closed.

[elocs]

2. Sorry, the cat didn't just cough up 14,000 ballots--it coughed up a tally. Big difference

since there are 14,000 pieces of paper that will have to match that tally. A paper trail of 14,000 that can be physically touched and recounted.

[WheelWalker]

3. Exacyly !!!

[cascadiance]

5. AND the number of signatures or names checked off should equal the amount of ballots...

at each precinct! We don't want any "manufactured" anonymous paper ballots that they might have had all night to manufacture and plant.

[Citizen Worker]

4. " 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." You mean like we did after the supremes appointed Bush to the presidency following Bush vs. Gore? That kind of credibility and legitimacy?

[Stuart G]

6. K and R nt