|
tazzygirl -> RE: Recall?? who da Judge? (4/7/2011 8:12:44 PM)
|
Hmmm...
Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said more than 14,000 votes weren't reported to The Associated Press on Tuesday due to "human error." Nickolaus previously worked for a GOP caucus that was under the control of Justice David Prosser, who was speaker of the Assembly at the time and who now stands to benefit from the clerk's error.
"This is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found," Nickolaus said. "This is human error, which I apologize for."
Nickolaus said the most significant error occurred when she entered totals from the city of Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, but they were not saved.
.........
Rep. Peter Barca, Democratic Assembly minority leader, said the mistake raises significant suspicion that could warrant an investigation.
"It doesn't instill confidence in her competence or integrity," Barca said.
Nickolaus was given immunity from prosecution in a 2002 criminal investigation into illegal activity by members of the Republican Assembly caucus where she worked as a data analyst and computer specialist. Prosser, who as speaker of the Assembly in 1995 and 1996 controlled the same caucus, was not part of the investigation. Nickolaus resigned from her state job in 2002 just before launching her county clerk campaign.
The corruption probe took down five legislative leaders, all of whom reached plea deals.
,,,,,,,
The surprise discovery of votes that could give Prosser the win and quash any recount before it starts already had liberal groups crying foul. Nickolaus has also been criticized by the Waukesha County Board for her handling of past elections and lack of oversight in her operations.
"There is a history of secrecy and partisanship surrounding the Waukesha County Clerk and there remain unanswered questions," Scot Ross, director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said in a statement.
An audit of Nickolaus' handling of the 2010 election found that she needed to take steps to improve security and backup procedures, like stop sharing passwords. The audit was requested after the county's director of administration said Nickolaus had been uncooperative with attempts to have county experts review her systems and confirm backups were in place.
The Government Accountability Board, which is in charge of overseeing Wisconsin's elections, will review Waukesha County's numbers to verify the totals, said agency director Kevin Kennedy.
"We will conduct our own review of issues because we want to make sure that we are tracking every entry she made into our system," Kennedy said. "We're concerned when data is missing from a total. We'd like to make sure there is much better communication between their office and our office."
Kennedy said it was unfortunate the clerk didn't double check the data before releasing it to the press.
"Mistakes are never simple, they usually compound themselves, but these are the kind of mistakes we see happen, we just don't see them of this magnitude," Kennedy said.
Nickolaus said she didn't notice an absence of votes because her figures showed a 42 percent voter turnout, which exceeded the 30 percent turnout the county typically sees in spring elections.
"That was an amazing amount of votes," she said. "So I had no reason to believe I was missing anything."
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20110406/US.Wisconsin.Supreme.Court.Election/
I would hope a state wide recount would be implemented. This little lady sure has many problems with counts on more than one occassion.
|
|
|
|
