Those votes in Wisconsin

[medeak]

It smelled dirty when I first heard about it:

It was with great interest that I watched the press conference of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus. You see, my "day job" is in the field of information technology, and I was tuned in to her every word regarding her use of Microsoft Access to tabulate the county wide vote totals. So I decided to make a little voting database in Microsoft Access 2010 and 2007, to test her story.

Nickolaus says repeatedly that she imported the data into Access, but through a process of "human error", she "forgot to save". Then come the tears, repeatedly, throughout her presser.

Here's the problem. Microsoft Access (any version) doesn't ask you to save. When you enter data into a table, it automatically updates the underlying database. If you close the database accidentally, the data you entered (or imported, in the case of Nickolaus) remains. If you stop to take a phone call from your buddy the governor (for example), your data will still automatically ...more at link

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/07/964645/-Kathy-Nickolaus-in-Waukesha-forgot-to-saveReally

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Verrrrry Interesting. K and R

[Tx4obama]

2. But the bottom line is that the ballots were counted IN the City of Brookfield

The 14K+ vote totals were from the City of Brookfield, they transmitted them to the County Clerk's office.
The County Clerk did not count Brookfield's ballots.

Did Nickolaus make a clerical error? YES
Did was there an error at the local level in Brookfield? NO

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

[Botany]

6. Don't put bullshit on toast and tell me to eat up ....

... it is just "country style" apple butter.

How in the world can you miss 20 precincts worth of votes (out of 198)
and find it the next day? I mean the expression is we will see when the
returns get in .... if her story is to be believed they sent the vote count
to the Sec. of State's office without noticing a city of 38,000 did not
turn in their vote.

What was she doing putting the data on her personal p.c.?

Why did she say I didn't hit the save key when:
1) There is no save key
2) The program automatically saves all data by default

She had been in trouble about "finding votes" before and her excuse
then was she hadn't saved the data

She had worked for judge Prosser before

The "new votes" magically put Prosser beyond the #s needed to trigger a
recount

I have worked elections for years and her story just doesn't hold water.

[Tx4obama]

9. Show me one piece of evidence the dems and republicans did something wrong in the City of Brookfield

It was IN the cit of Brookfield that the ballots were counted and tallied.
The election officials (democrats and republicans) transmitted their totals to the county.

Where is even one report that the dems and repubs errored in Brookfield at the local level where the numbers were generated?

[Botany]

12. Show me one piece of evidence ... did something wrong

How about the fact somebody forgot to turn the vote totals for
a day and half and when the new totals were found where they had
no business being it served to help the partisan agenda of the women
in question.

Vote totals are supposed to be in at the end of the day on election day
to the BOE. It has been that way for a long time.

[Tx4obama]

14. The City of Brookfield transmitted their results to the county on election night.

Like I said show my one piece of evidence that the City of Brookfield did something wrong at the local level.

Btw, the proper time for the 'county clerk' to report any errors on her end was on canvassing day - that is the day that the numbers can be officially corrected - and that is what she did. I don't like Nickolaus but she did report the error on the day that she was supposed to have.

[Botany]

17. and that data transmitted that night went missing ...

.... because she did not save it correctly when she imported the
spread sheet into her personal P.C. even though the O.S. she was using
had a default save function to it? Once that data was uploaded it was
saved and so her saying something about "human error" for not
doing the correct key strokes is one big lie. End of story.

[Tx4obama]

19. There wasn't a law broken.

Canvassing day is when all errors are caught and corrected.
And that is what happened.

The fact remains the ballots in Brookfield still exist and the totals that Brookfield transmitted are the numbers for that city.

[LAGC]

13. It's not Brookfield we're concerned about!

The error happened at the COUNTY level.

If she was so careless to omit a whole city's numbers, whose to say she didn't "accidentally" enter them in somewhere else on her spreadsheet and then go back and add them AGAIN once she "realized" the city had zeros for its totals?

Don't you find it suspicious (to say the least) that the updated numbers are just barely what Prosser needs to avoid an automatic recount?

Something stinks to high heaven here, and this entire election needs to be audited from top to bottom.

[Tx4obama]

15. That is why there is a canvassing of the totals before they are certified.

There is a process in place to catch errors and the process worked.
The error was caught and it was corrected.

ALL the total are checked so if she had added the Brookfield total where it wasn't supposed to be it would have been caught.
All the DEMS at the local precincts are keeping their eyes on the County Clerk's numbers - they would catch it if there numbers are not correct - when the votes are certified the numbers for each precinct will be public.

So, the only way that Nickolaus could change numbers and get away with it is if the DEMOCRATS are in on it too - and that just isn't going to happen!

[Botany]

34. Wow what I see in your posts is exactly what the repugs ...

..... did after Florida 2000 and Ohio's 2004 stolen elections and that is;
Look for there to be any funny business going on then why are some
DEMOCRATS going along w/ these shenanigans?

[Ellipsis]

7. You keep assuming that she wasn't doing any nefarious. I say the Brookfield numbers were a mistake.

an unintentional omission while she was massaging percentages in excel and forgot to slug Brookfield when she imported the numbers back.

[Tx4obama]

20. So you think all the DEMOCRATS at the local precincts allowed numbers to be changed

at the LOCAL LEVEL?

You can't change the numbers at the county level without changing them at the local precincts.

You think the DEMOCRATIC election officials at the local level that know exactly what their precinct's numbers were on election night are going to let a republican change all the numbers? I don't think so.

[Ellipsis]

22. A couple things

First a little primer

Waukesha - Computer glitches, inoperable equipment and other problems troubled Tuesday's primary balloting in Waukesha County, resulting in one candidate mistakenly being posted as winner of a race only later to be declared the loser. The problems also prevented the county from posting final results of races until the early morning hours of Wednesday, and kept the county from posting results online.


In Waukesha County, problems with touch-screen equipment were among a host of snafus.Christine Lufter, who lost a Republican primary in the 97th Assembly District, said Wednesday that she would not likely challenge the outcome, although she was still trying to sort out what happened."There was obviously a huge problem," she said. "And why it affected the 97th race more than any other is confusing."

Computer monitors at the county clerk's office late Tuesday briefly showed Lufter winning her race, as county officials scrambled to correct flawed returns from the City of Waukesha. Final results later showed Lufter losing to fellow Republican Bill Kramer by a significant margin. County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said some returns from the City of Waukesha inexplicably had data recorded in the wrong column, which momentarily skewed results.

http://solidaritywisconsin.com/content/2006-waukesha-county-election-flaws-kept-results-line-one-loser-briefly-declared-winner-0






Approved Vendors

1. Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
2. Election Systems & Software (ES&S).
3. Populex Corporation.
4. Sequoia Voting Systems.
5. Vote-PAD*.
6. Voting Technologies International (VTI).

Voting Equipment Use by Wisconsin Municipality
http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/voting-equipment/voting-equipment-use

Wisconsin law, §5.91(18), Wis. Stats., requires that all direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems produce a complete, permanent paper record showing all votes cast by the elector. The voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is considered the official ballot and is to be used in a recount of each vote cast by the elector.



Our Heros...




An older optical scan voting system still in wide use the Optech Eagle. These machines were originally manufactured by Business Records Corp. (BRC), which was acquired by American Information Systems (AIS) in 1997, at which time AIS changed its name to Election Systems & Software (ES&S). Due to an SEC antitrust action, sales and distribution of the Optech Eagle machines was split up between ES&S and another vendor, Sequoia Voting Systems. Therefore you will see the Optech Eagle machines under both Sequoia and ES&S trade names.


The Sequoia AVC Edge is a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine with a voter-verified paper audit trail





CITY BROOKFIELD Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
CITY

DELAFIELD Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
CITY

MUSKEGO Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

CITY NEW BERLIN Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

CITY OCONOMOWOC Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

CITY PEWAUKEE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

CITY WAUKESHA Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

TOWN BROOKFIELD Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

TOWN DELAFIELD Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

TOWN EAGLE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

TOWN GENESEE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN
LISBON Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN
MERTON Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN
MUKWONAGO Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN

OCONOMOWOC Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN OTTAWA Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

TOWN SUMMIT Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

TOWN VERNON Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)
TOWN

WAUKESHA Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

VILLAGE BIG BEND Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE BUTLER Optical Scan ES&S Eagle

VILLAGE LANNON Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE MENOMONEE FALLS Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no ES&S AutoMARK
modem)

VILLAGE MERTON Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE NASHOTAH Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE NORTH PRAIRIE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE OCONOMOWOC LAKE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

VILLAGE PEWAUKEE Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

VILLAGE SUSSEX Optical Scan ES&S Eagle (w/ modem & no SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24
modem)

VILLAGE WALES Optical Scan ES&S Eagle w/ modem SEQ-AVC Edge II 5.0.24

[PeaceNikki]

23. Interesting. You're missing at least one community in Waukesha County in there.

And it happens to be mine. :)

Found it at link.

[Ellipsis]

25. Cutting and pasting just like Nickalous I guess.

[PeaceNikki]

26. YOUR DISENFRANCHISING ME!

:D

[Tx4obama]

28. Your first link is from 2006.

So, what does that have to do with the paper ballots at Brookfield and the Brookfield totals that were verified by both republicans and DEMOCRATS at the local level?

[Ellipsis]

30. Exactly right, shows a pattern. ....some more things

The Eagle prints messages on a paper tape. An Election Officer can communicate with the Eagle by means of the paper tape and the control pad. An Election Officer can give commands to the Eagle by pressing the appropriate buttons on a control pad located under the lid on the back of the machine.

v. The Paper Tape

The paper tape is used for these three functions:

• To confirm that the electronic counters are set to zero before voting begins.
• To print an error message if an operational problem occurs during the day.
• To print the election results AFTER the polls close.

[Ellipsis]

33. ..and some more

2002 Optech Eagle Wayne County, North Carolina. A programming error caused the Optech Eagle optical scan machines to skip several thousand party-line votes, both Republican and Democrat. Correcting the error turned up 5,500 more votes and reversed the outcome for the House District 11 state representative race.

Muskegon, Michigan. Optical scan machines failed to detect 2% of the votes for Township Clerk because the marks were too light. Originally, the machines reported that challenger Kris Tabler had
lost to incumbent Jim Nielsen, 791-786. 55

The ensuing canvassing process, which compares the results from the precinct reports to the results produced by the ballot-counting machines, found the same result.

But Tabler paid for a recount in all seven township precincts, and the Muskegon County Board of Canvassers spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday inspecting the ballots by hand. When they finished, the result was startlingly different. Tabler won the election over Nielsen by two votes, 804-802. Jerry Young, the candidate who finished a distant third, received 258 votes in the recount.

Overall, the recount revealed the existence of 39 more votes cast in the clerk's race than the original count did.

2004 Arizona. The original totals for State Representative in District 20 showed Anton Orlich in the lead over John McComish by four votes, and the close margin required a
recount. The optical scan recount found nearly 500 additional votes for the five candidates in the race and changed the outcome, giving McComish the lead by 13 points.

2004 central count Sandusky County, Ohio. An election turnout of 131% tipped off the election officials that the optical scanners had been adding phantom votes to the totals. Officials concluded that ballots had been counted twice and speculated that some ballots had been fed through machine more than once.

2004 , Wisconsin. Four and a half months after the election, a consulting firm discovered that ES&S had programmed the optical scanners incorrectly, failing to account for partisan elections.

That failure meant that the votes of everyone who voted straight ticket - anyone who voted only for candidates of a single party - were not counted. In all, about 600 of 2,256 ballots cast were not
counted, Strama said.
... Medford and Taylor County officials have been told by Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software that the city will be reimbursed for the costs of setting up the vote-counting machine in the
fall because the program was faulty. A spokeswoman said the company takes full responsibility for the error.

2005 Medford, Wisconsin. Inaccurate programming by ES&S caused all straight-party votes to be lost, affecting approximately 27% of the ballots.

"There's really nothing voters can do at this point," said Kevin Kennedy, the executive secretary of the State Elections Board.



Jacksonackson County, Indiana New ES&S voting machine equipment is not interfacing with older odels, forcing workers to manually count votes in each machine in each precinct.

“ES&S has been here reading the packs, and they are having problems getting them merged together with the power packs from the Eagle machine, which is the optical scan we’ve always had,” Jackson
County Clerk Sarah Benter said Tuesday night.
Because of the problems caused by the machines, Benter and the Jackson County Election Board were left with no alternative but to count results from each machine in each precinct, a process that didn’t
wrap up until nearly 4:30 a.m. today.
“I’m not sure whether it was a software problem or a coding problem, but I certainly hope they’ll figure it out and fix it by November,” Benter said. “We had to count everything by hand, and I know
we’re not the only county encountering it. I know Clark County is southern Indiana are experiencing the same problems.”

May 2006 ES&S Optical scan Phillips County, Arkansas. Tabulators, with flawed ballot programming furnished by ES&S, mistook 432 Democratic votes for Republican and fail to count them in the Democratic primary.

Several days after the Election Commission certified that race and Crumbly and Willis began campaigning for the June 13 runoff, commission staff discovered that 432 votes cast at Allen Temple
in Phillips County had mistakenly been counted as Republican ballots, effectively nullifying them.

The malfunctioning ballot tabulating machine was programmed by Election Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb.-based company that in November signed a $ 15 million contract to provide election
equipment to Arkansas counties.

[aquart]

3. I'm willing to agree she is lying about something.

And I'll agree about the Microsoft programs because that is not new news. But no one has been able to tell me how what she does then changes the paper verification trail.

How does she make what she does match the paper trail? If the vote for the particular candidate is on the paper, then she cannot change the number on the PC. CAN SHE?

And the totals were recorded in the county but not to AP.

I have no problem believing election fraud. I just need to know how it could have been done.

[randr]

4. No matter what--the original files are not being presented

any files that have come out of her personal computer should not be acceptable--period.

[ladjf]

8. Once it left the controlled environment, it should have been considered

to be invalid because it was. Do you think the courts would accept evidence in a murder trial that had been carried around for a few days in the purse of one of the workers? This is turning into a kangaroo circus. This is like something in the third world, banana republics.

[Tx4obama]

10. Files on her computer are not what counts. It is the ballot total IN Brookfield.

If you put $10,000 in your bank account but forget to add that amount to the total in your check register - you still have that amount in the bank.

The ballot total of the City of Brookfield was counted and tallied IN Brookfield.

The reason there is a canvass day is to catch any clerical errors - the error was caught by the county clerk and corrected on the canvass day.

There is absolutely no proof of wrong doing on the 'local level', only a clerical error at the county level.

[LAGC]

16. "only a clerical error at the county level"

An error that just happened to give Prosser enough votes to avoid a recount?

And you think nothing fishy is going on?

[Tx4obama]

18. It is not enough to totally avoid a recount. Kloppenburg will request the recount.

And the margin is low so it will cost only $5 per ward.

[Abq_Sarah]

27. No error "gave" Prosser votes

The voters in the City of Brookfield did that all on their own.

The county clerk never had "custody" of those votes, she had a tabulated result given to her by the city.

The numbers were in no way official and the error was caught exactly as it was supposed to be.

[Tx4obama]

31. You are 100% correct! n/t

[ladjf]

5. If the record is accepted on input, it's in. That's it. No way to get

rid of it other than deleting the record.

I might also add that if her computer is in any way part of any network, others can alter data in her Access database. Access was never intended to be a secure database. It is an "in house" product designed for convenience with relatively low volumes of data.

[Tx4obama]

11. Here's a link to a good article that everyone should read

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

[medeak]

21. was just told

"Some non-partisan election type board will investigate. They are retired judges. This should be interesting!" popcorn time?

[PeaceNikki]

24. It's our Government Accountability Board.

http://gab.wi.gov/about

[aquart]

32. And they know computers?

[Tx4obama]

29. Rep. Baldwin Asks Feds To Investigate Waukesha Co.

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.

Rest of article here: http://www.channel3000.com/politics/27488788/detail.html