WI Update 4:58 PM - Kennedy: Waukesha County investigation ongoing, but numbers appear to match up

[Tx4obama]

GAB Director Kevin Kennedy says the agency's investigation of spring election procedures in Waukesha County remains ongoing, but that the final canvass numbers in the city of Brookfield match the initial tallies from poll workers on Election Night.

"We don't see, at this point, any criminal activity, but we certainly see practices that need to be changed to bolster public confidence," Kennedy said.

GAB staff is now the process of matching those numbers for all Waukesha County wards after Brookfield ballots were mistakenly left out of Election Night returns from the county clerk. The numbers tentatively turned a razor-thin lead for Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg into a margin of more than 7,000 votes in favor of incumbent Justice David Prosser.

Kennedy also said GAB staff is reviewing Election Night practices in the county, saying he hopes to give the public and the press greater access to the county's results and break them down by voting precinct so that the 24 voting wards in Brookfield wouldn't be overlooked in future elections.

http://elections.wispolitics.com

[Taverner]

1. Why don't I buy this?

[Tx4obama]

5. So, you think the 'all zeros' for the city of Brookfield before the canvas was correct?

It was an error at the county level nothing more than that.
There is no evidence that the numbers that the city of Brookfield transmitted to the county on election were not correct.
The County Clerk made a clerical error on her end.
Brookfield did not screw up, Nickolaus did.

[Cieran_WI]

15. Brookfield is the magician's slight of hand.

The GOP is using their intentional holding back of the Brookfield votes to get the Kloppenburg campaign and WI democrats to focus on Waukesha county, where the paper ballots in Brookfield will match up to the numbers that were reported late, and avoid a statewide recount where the real fraud occurred.

Supposedly 900k less voters for Democrats than in the 2008 election, and supposedly 500k less voters for Republicans since 2008. And yet, despite the last 2 months of union protests in WI that saw thousands upon thousands of independents and life-long Republicans turn against Walker and the GOP, but still supposedly voted for the GOP candidates.

There will be no audit of our optical scanning machines. There will be no statewide recount. Either thing would show that the electronically reported numbers from the optical scanners do not match up with the paper ballots statewide, which is why they are trying to get everyone to drop all mention of state-wide, hand counting of paper ballots and just focus on whether there was any hanky-panky in reporting valid the Brookfield numbers late.

[Tx4obama]

21. There will be a recount. Kloppenburg already hired Al Franken's lawyer. n/t

[PeaceNikki]

23. lol.

gmta

[Cieran_WI]

29. Likely Waukesha county only, not a state-wide, hand-recount.

[PeaceNikki]

31. We'll see.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

48. Why do you say this? Never mind - I've been reading your other posts here

getting your drift...appreciate your take

[PeaceNikki]

22. I think there *WILL* be an audit of our optical scanning machines and statewide recount.

Kloppenburg has Franken's attorney on this.

[Cieran_WI]

30. We can hope, but I'm laying out what I think the GOP's strategy has been. n/t

[eowyn_of_rohan]

51. ME TOO

Ready to Rumble

[IScreamSundays]

38. +666

[eowyn_of_rohan]

50. Welll - heh heh - I think they aren't giving us enough credit

"they are trying to get everyone to drop all mention of state-wide, hand counting of paper ballots and just focus on whether there was any hanky-panky in reporting valid the Brookfield numbers late."

We're all twice burned and not wanting a third scorch. ESPECIALLY not in our own state. We are BADGERS! Aaaargh

[Tx4obama]

54. Who is trying to get everyone to drop all mention of state-wide, hand counting of paper ballots ?

I am fully looking forward to the state-wide recount.
Kloppenburg has hired Al Franken's attorney and I'm sure he will push for a full hand recount just like in Minnesota :)

p.s. Just because some of us are not buying into what the conspiracy theorists are saying doesn't mean that we don't want a full recount.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

56. I was responding to someone else's post and have no idea what you are talking about

"conspiracy theorists"? I don't see it that way at all.

[villager]

8. For the same reasons most of us don't, I suspect...

n/t

[shraby]

2. Then it looks like Waukesha is a "shiny object" meant to

distract from something else in another county.

[Cieran_WI]

20. Precisely. A full state-wide hand-count, I believe, would...

show that numbers elsewhere in the state do not match the optical scanner numbers. That's why there won't be a state-wide recount by hand, the GOP is doing everything they can to get us to focus solely on Waukesha county where it will be discovered that nothing is invalid about Brookfield's votes. It's a magician's slight of hand.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

3. "practices that need to be changed to bolster public confidence,"

SCREW YOU, Kennedy! Nickolaus's practices violate the law. Her activity is criminal!

[elocs]

24. That still does not mean that the votes do not stand.

I am sure there will be a thorough investigation, but my guess is that DU will only accept the answer it wants.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

32. that was a cheap shot.

I think most DU'ers want transparent elections. Optiscan ballots must be counted by hand - not via a 2nd run through the Diebold tabulator. We cannot rely on the printed records that the tabulator spews out. I dont want the Waukesha Co clerk who may have violated laws in this election to be given custody of these ballots. This whole thing stinks and I DAMN well do not want to happen here what happened in FLA and OH.

[elocs]

35. Call for her scalp if you like, she probably deserves to lose it,

but that doesn't take away the votes although a tally on a computer had better be backed up by a paper trail.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

36. you're talking about 2 different things at once.

Want to talk about the vote totals - results of the canvass /

Or about Nickolaus?

[elocs]

41. Just because Nickolaus screwed may not change the vote totals at all

and many here at DU believe that it will. The 2 different things are clearly related.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

44. They may be both be brought up within a post, but they are SEPARATE issues.

RE Nickolaus. she may have simply made another major boo-boo. OR she may have had nefarious reasons for storing election data on her own hackable computer. That remains to be seen. She has violated the law and the public trust multiple times in the past.

Today we find out that she may have violated more statutes that pertain to having a Democratic representative in the room when recounts or canvasses are taking place. Or fully disclosing pertinent data to said reps during the canvassing process - other? I don't know at this point.

With so much unknown about her motives and strange behavior, and potential investigations into her actions and deeds surrounding this election, I do not understand why she has been given custody of these ballots . These ballots belong to the People of Wisconsin. Kathy Nickolaus does not deserve our trust. This is what I am angry about at this point - NOT the voter count totals after canvass.

[bluestateguy]

4. Sounds like there will only be another cover up

Once again, I congratulate JoAnne Kloppenberg on her election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Ah, ah--

Once again, I congratulate JoAnne Kloppenberg on her election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

[Junkdrawer]

6. It's not the numbers in Brookfield that I worry about....

It's that the numbers in the rest of the county were "tweaked" to make a Brookfield sized hole so that Brookfield could be counted twice.

Brookfield posted their numbers election night. The rest of the county didn't.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

7. he "hopes to give the public & press greater access to the county's results"

I dont trust him at all. WTF is he doing handing over the BALLOTS to be stored in NICKOLAUS's OFFICE?

[Tx4obama]

14. They are locked and sealed. n/t

[eowyn_of_rohan]

17. How can we know that? why are they in custody of Nickolaus?

Does anybody else here find this completely unacceptable?

[Cieran_WI]

27. Except those paper ballots will NEVER be counted...

when all is said and done, and the election is certified with Prosser as winner, we'll still be going completely on numbers spit out by electronic, optical scanner that can be abused. Without a state-wide, hand-recount of all paper ballots, we'll never know where in WI they did steal the election, because Waukesha county in merely the magician's slight of hand where the GOP is trying to get us to focus our attention. Like with Miami-Dade's hanging chads distracting from the 90,000+ black people illegally put on felon's list in Florida 2000.

There will never be an audit of our optical scanners in WI, because an audit that showed errors would immediately throw into question not only this election, but Walker's last November and even more beyond that.

[PeaceNikki]

28. I think there *WILL* be an audit of our optical scanning machines and statewide recount.

Kloppenburg has Franken's attorney on this.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

34. yay. We must have it so we can make our elections truly respectable again-nt

:cry: This is really getting to me

[PeaceNikki]

40. Ya know... slightly off-topic.

You and I have had some harsh words in the past several days, and I am standing up now to ask that we call a truce. We are on the same side and we both want this to end the same way.

This has been an emotional battle and some of us REALLY have our hearts in this because it is literally our backyards. I am going to take some words from a reply that was lost in a deleted in a sub-thread that got heated the other day and repost.

This is a "Discussion Board". People "discuss" and sometimes you don't agree with them. Sometimes there are topics about which people are VERY passionate and it feels TERRIBLE when someone disagrees with our exact view of the issue and we are SO emotional about it that we can't even see the simple things about which we agree.

I will list the things that I think you and are in TOTAL agreement on in this mess:

1) We TOTALLY want Kloppenburg to win.
2) The Waukesha County Clerk is a corrupt asshole
3) This needs to be thoroughly investigated
4) A recount with FULL hand count MUST happen
5) Any and all corruption or fraud needs to be fully exposed and prosecuted if found

See... that's a lot, no? The things that we disagree about are ALL theorectical. We disagree about what did happen, what people's motives might have been and what will happen. All of these things will either be worked out or we'll flat out never know. I hope that we can all stop acting like the other doesn't care. I think you know that I care more than most can ever comprehend. Please stop acting like I am defending this county clerk, I am not and I will not. Ever. I hope people will stop with the strawmman arguments that I think we should not investigate, I've made my opinion very clear on that. And mostly, I would like people to stop implying that I am a "troll" because I don't agree with every specific theory to which they subscribe.

I, like most here on DU am very passionate about "my" issues. I will continue to shoot down wild and crazy theories made by people who don't understand the processes or people here in WI, specifically my community. Sometimes I will be wrong and I concede that I don't know EVERYTHING. I have learned some things AND admitted I was wrong when corrected.

So... truce?

[Tx4obama]

46. Brava! n/t

[eowyn_of_rohan]

33. so I say BRING IT ON

I want to know what Kloppenberg's team is doing...

[eowyn_of_rohan]

57. I prefer to keep a more optimistic attitude at this point -nt

[Ineeda]

9. I'm not into CT but

if other counties or districts had irregularities, the Waukesha shenanigans could be pulling the focus there deliberately, instead of other places where the numbers are not legitimate. Or is that just crazy talk?

[karnac]

10. U must be..

an R* to keep coming up with true but inconvenient news!!





(just kidding) :D

[Tx4obama]

43. I'd say that telling the truth is found more often with the democrats ;) n/t

Except for the democratic conspiracy theorists ;)

[ewagner]

11. If the total

number of voters checked into the polling places, equals the number of votes cast then there is no fraud in the voting....TWO election judges confirm the people checking in to vote and hand out the ballots only after each verifies the voter's address in the ward...one is a dem pol watcher and one is a repub pol watcher....

What happened at the County level? I have no clue what Kathy's game was...I'm sure there was a game but the Brookfield numbers weren't part of it.

[PeaceNikki]

13. This ^

[eowyn_of_rohan]

25. But this only refers to the number of voters - not how they voted

it doesnt tell us if the votes cast were properly recorded by the Opti-scan tabulator.

[Blue Owl]

12. Then why gag the Democratic election judge?

I mean, if there's nothing to hide...

[eowyn_of_rohan]

37. who do you mean- did I miss something? -nt

[Blue Owl]

53. from earlier today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x867323

[eowyn_of_rohan]

55. I didn't see anything about an election judge in that thread

do you mean the Democratic observer, Ramona Kitzinger? If that is who you refer to, I hear you = because they did gag her, and they kept pertinent information from her and kept her out of the room until it suited them to let her in. I hardly think that is acceptable and wonder if it legal.

[Blue Owl]

58. Yup

another thread about Ramona Kitzinger here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x869305

[ewagner]

59. Correct...that was the "GAME"

But why?

That's the biggest question in my mind because if the Brookfield City Clerk's numbers were identical to the numbers the County Clerk reported at the news conference, there was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to keep either of the election judges out of the loop.

There is something amiss here and I support an investigation but I'll be damned if I'm smart enough to figure out this bizarre twist.

[LisaL]

16. It's all good, nothing to see here. Move along...

[elocs]

18. That dog don't hunt here. The only acceptable answer: election fraud.

Although if the paper trail backs up the tally, then it simply means an incompetent country clerk who biggest sin was allowing us to believe that Kloppenburg had won when she really had not.

Be that as it may, election fraud will be the only acceptable verdict at DU, even if it is not.

[PeaceNikki]

26. Indeed. I also trust the GAB more than a few here.

AND Kloppenburg's amazing attorney.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

39. I just must say that he has not earned our trust over the past decade

Perhaps he has reformed.

If you have good reasons to trust his integrity now, I would sure like to know what they are

[PeaceNikki]

42. Kevin Kennedy is not the board of GAB, he's the director.

AND I heard the full interview on WPR where he discussed this race and the Waukesha County issue for 45 minutes. It left me with some comfort that they will investigate. So, my reasons to trust the GAB are my reasons, not necessarily yours.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

47. Oh yes, I am well aware he is the director - didnt mean to imply otherwise

I made Monsieur Kennedy my personal topic of study in 2004 and 05 but got too burnt out to keep it up. I am still hanging onto my distrust of him from the days when he shuffled in certain evoting equpment during the anthrax scare, then the Accenture deal, and subsequent shilling. I have no idea where he is at now...though he has been here at LEAST since Tommy-boy Thompson , who may have appointed him. His involvement/authority re Wisconsin elections puts him in a powerful position - like Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio 2004.There are just so many ways we can get burned. Remember Florida and Ohio...

Those GAB guys look like nice Dads. I hope they are all good guys. I read your other note and appreciate it. Will read it more carefully and respond asap.

[Imajika]

45. Hey PeaceNikki, do you think it's possible...

...that Nickolaus held back the votes from Brookfield intentionally in order to give time for Dane's canvass to come in?

You know the Republicans are absolutely paranoid that we "find" votes to win at the end of a close election in our high population urban precincts.

Assuming we are not talking about complete incompetence here, I wonder if maybe Nickolaus was thinking she'd "accidentally" report a false total which would give Democrats a lower final tally than what it would actually take to win?

I mean, it really might just be ineptitude, and I do think these Brookfield votes are probably legit, but I am suspicious that she did intentionally hold them back.

[PeaceNikki]

52. I can't even imagine why she'd would bury a an entire VERY RED city.

This particular instance of the 14,000 diappearing/reappearing Brookfield votes doesn't appear to be fraud. If this asshole wanted to throw the election to Prosser, this is about the stupidest way she could have done it. Anyone with access to city and county vote totals and a calculator would discover it in 5 minutes once the error was announced.

BUT it MUST and WILL be thoroughly investigated. Incompetence to that degree is as bad as fraud. That woman is responsible for *MY* vote and I want answers and I want a fine-tooth comb to see if she's made other mistakes and/or actually acting nefariously. This alleged mistake has opened her up to a deep deep dive.

Could there be some other fraud that she's committed? Maybe... possibly... even likely?? I just don't think it's in Brookfield.

[murielm99]

19. I think there needs to be a hand recount of Waukesha

County's ballots for this election.

I am not satisfied that the county clerk is storing these ballots. They should be under lock and key and in the custody of the GAB. Kloppenburg's lawyer should demand this.

[fascisthunter]

49. nothing less