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talkpolitics2011-04-08 08:31 am
farchivist.livejournal.com) wrote in talkpolitics2011-04-08 08:31 am
Error? Or Fraud? (Could it be....SATAN?!?!?)
In the ongoing saga of the Wisconsin GOP/union battle, a new wrinkle is on the latest battlefield. This past week was the scene of the election of a Wisconsin Supreme Court judge. The incumbent is one David Prosser, a conservative who is generally considered to be aligned with Governor Walker. The challenger was the state Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, noted state liberal. If Prosser loses his seat, this will tip the Wisconsin Supreme Court in favor of a liberal majority from its current conservative majority.
'Natch, in light of the Wisconsin union bill battle this Supreme Court election has become a proxy fight between the GOP and the Democrats. It is likely that whoever wins will be the decider of the fate of the union bill. In the days leading up to the election, there were interesting back and forth tidbits. Some examples:
- Prosser's campaign co-chairman, former Governor Patrick Lucey resigned from Prosser's campaign and endorsed JoAnne Kloppenburg, attributing his decision to Prosser's "disturbing distemper and lack of civility", while praising Kloppenburg for "adhering throughout the campaign to even-handedness and non-partisanship and exhibiting both promising judicial temperament and good grace, even in the heat of a fierce campaign."
- Politifact rates both Prosser and Kloppenburg as being a bit loosey-goosey with the truth, with Kloppenburg being more false.
- Prosser is reputed as being an intemperate man, but scuttlebutt is that it's a result of being ganged up on by court liberals
All the juicy tittle-tattle aside, the election took place on the 6th. Turnout was higher than expected, around 35%. The result was extremely narrow; Kloppenburg won the election by 204 votes. A recount, of course, was expected.
But.
BUT.
BUT.
There is a new wrinkle in the election. A Waukesha County Clerk by name of Kathy Nickolaus states that she made a mistake when entering votes into the system...and that there were an extra 7500 votes for Prosser, giving him the victory. Let's repeat that: 7500 votes for the incumbent, supposedly missed due to "human error" on the part of the Clerk, per the Clerk.
But it's just a mistake, right? Perhaps not. Some interesting things have come to light about Ms. Nickolaus. Some highlights:
- Concerns have been raised previously about her integrity in regards to vote counting. She's very secretive, having taken the election data collection and storage system off the county's computer network - and keep it on stand-alone personal computers accessible only in her office. Worse, she refuses to let the county IT department examine or support the system.
- Clerk Nickolaus says repeatedly that she imported the data into Access, but through a process of "human error", she "forgot to save". A fellow over at Daily Kos decided to experiment on his own. His result: Computer Says No.
- Nickolaus had worked in the Assembly Republican caucus during the time that Prosser served as the Assembly speaker. Supposedly, they had a very close relationship during the period. The caucus was one of four shut down following a criminal investigation into state staffers doing campaign work on state time and led to the resignations and criminal convictions of leaders in the Senate and Assembly for directing caucus and staff employees to engage in illegal political activity during their state employment. She was granted immunity during the investigation and resigned before the end.
A full analysis of the Waukesha vote problems are given here.
My opinion: Sounds a bit hinky to me. If it's an actual error, then I really question her ability to be in charge of elections. Her history does not put a good light on it and there's a lot of question as to why she waited 24 hours to make an announcement. However, only investigation will determine what the real deal is. I personally await the juicy gossip.
Hey, IT people, what do ya'll have to say about what Clerk Nickolaus says about Access? Can we get some opinions from all sides? Was the Daily Kos dude straight on?
'Natch, in light of the Wisconsin union bill battle this Supreme Court election has become a proxy fight between the GOP and the Democrats. It is likely that whoever wins will be the decider of the fate of the union bill. In the days leading up to the election, there were interesting back and forth tidbits. Some examples:
- Prosser's campaign co-chairman, former Governor Patrick Lucey resigned from Prosser's campaign and endorsed JoAnne Kloppenburg, attributing his decision to Prosser's "disturbing distemper and lack of civility", while praising Kloppenburg for "adhering throughout the campaign to even-handedness and non-partisanship and exhibiting both promising judicial temperament and good grace, even in the heat of a fierce campaign."
- Politifact rates both Prosser and Kloppenburg as being a bit loosey-goosey with the truth, with Kloppenburg being more false.
- Prosser is reputed as being an intemperate man, but scuttlebutt is that it's a result of being ganged up on by court liberals
All the juicy tittle-tattle aside, the election took place on the 6th. Turnout was higher than expected, around 35%. The result was extremely narrow; Kloppenburg won the election by 204 votes. A recount, of course, was expected.
But.
BUT.
BUT.
There is a new wrinkle in the election. A Waukesha County Clerk by name of Kathy Nickolaus states that she made a mistake when entering votes into the system...and that there were an extra 7500 votes for Prosser, giving him the victory. Let's repeat that: 7500 votes for the incumbent, supposedly missed due to "human error" on the part of the Clerk, per the Clerk.
But it's just a mistake, right? Perhaps not. Some interesting things have come to light about Ms. Nickolaus. Some highlights:
- Concerns have been raised previously about her integrity in regards to vote counting. She's very secretive, having taken the election data collection and storage system off the county's computer network - and keep it on stand-alone personal computers accessible only in her office. Worse, she refuses to let the county IT department examine or support the system.
- Clerk Nickolaus says repeatedly that she imported the data into Access, but through a process of "human error", she "forgot to save". A fellow over at Daily Kos decided to experiment on his own. His result: Computer Says No.
- Nickolaus had worked in the Assembly Republican caucus during the time that Prosser served as the Assembly speaker. Supposedly, they had a very close relationship during the period. The caucus was one of four shut down following a criminal investigation into state staffers doing campaign work on state time and led to the resignations and criminal convictions of leaders in the Senate and Assembly for directing caucus and staff employees to engage in illegal political activity during their state employment. She was granted immunity during the investigation and resigned before the end.
A full analysis of the Waukesha vote problems are given here.
My opinion: Sounds a bit hinky to me. If it's an actual error, then I really question her ability to be in charge of elections. Her history does not put a good light on it and there's a lot of question as to why she waited 24 hours to make an announcement. However, only investigation will determine what the real deal is. I personally await the juicy gossip.
Hey, IT people, what do ya'll have to say about what Clerk Nickolaus says about Access? Can we get some opinions from all sides? Was the Daily Kos dude straight on?
no subject