Something Smells In Waukesha County, Wisconsin– And It’s Not The Cheese

eowyn_of_rohan

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Wed Apr-13-11 06:28 PM
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Something Smells In Waukesha County, Wisconsin– And It’s Not The Cheese

Edited on Wed Apr-13-11 06:29 PM by eowyn_of_rohan

Apr. 13 2011 - 1:44 pm

By RICK UNGAR

Suspicious evidence is beginning to emerge calling into question last week’s controversial state Supreme Court election between incumbent Justice David Prosser and challenger, JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Kloppenburg, the Democrat, had initially been thought to be the winner by the narrowest of margins – approximately 200 votes – in the election that was viewed as a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-collective bargaining policies.

However, hours after the challenger declared victory, the Waukesha County Clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, announced that the votes of an entire city within her county had been accidentally omitted in her counts. When those votes were added into her totals, Justice Prosser emerged with a victory margin of roughly 7,500 votes –almost precisely the number needed to deny Ms. Kloppenburg an automatic, government-funded recount.

... serious questions based on a growing history of peculiarities are now beginning to emerge – so much so that Wisconsin Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, has formally asked the United States Justice Department to begin a formal investigation into the matter.

It turns out that there was a similar error in Waukesha County in 2006 during a Republican primary for State Assembly. Candidate Christine Lufter had been leading in the election until an alleged computer error discovered by Nickolaus was found to be placing votes in the wrong candidate’s column.

...And there is more. A blogger over at Daily Kos did a little digging into the Waukesha County election results from November, 2006 and made some unusual discoveries.

On the ‘top sheet’ of the summary of the election, the County reports that a total of 156,804 votes were cast. Yet, when we review the totals for each individual race, we discover that in the Governor’s race, a total of 176,112 votes were cast while there were 174,047 votes for Attorney General and 170, 440 votes in the competition for Secretary of State.

Thus, approximately 20,000 more votes are recorded in these individual election contests over and above the total number of those who are reported to have voted.

...There have been explanations put forth by various writers suggesting that the count on total voters may not have included absentee ballots, military votes, provisional votes, etc. That’s certainly possible – but would be a far more persuasive argument if confirmed by a County official.

Yet, when the Daily Kos blogger phoned the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, he was told, “We are aware of it, we are looking into it, and we cannot comment on it.”

These are hardly comforting words five years after the election in question.

There is an old saying – if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck – it must be a duck.

...Let’s hope that the Justice Department gives the matter the consideration it is due as this is about far more than one election for a state Supreme Court seat.

Voter fraud, no matter who benefits, is the ultimate corruption of democracy. Any evidence or hint that so much as suggests that something may be wrong must be fully investigated to insure that the people of Wisconsin are getting a fair result.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/13/something-smells-in-waukesha-county-wisconsin-and-its-not-the-cheese/