Milwaukee Newspaper Identifies Attorney Looking into Waukesha County Clerk
Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus remains under scrutiny after election night mistake.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is identifying the attorney that is looking into a request for an investigation into Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ election night snafu that caused Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg to declare victory over Justice David Prosser, only to have Prosser later be named the winner, as a former Dane County assistant district attorney.
The Milwaukee-based newspaper is reporting that Tim Verhoff informed the Kloppenburg campaign about the concerns that were raised following Nickolaus’ error.
Nickolaus came under national media attention after an election night mistake in reporting the unofficial results to the Associated Press caused Kloppenburg to declare victory with a razor-thin margin. However, Nickolaus forgot to include the results from the entire city of Brookfield when submitting the election results.
Instead, when the votes from Brookfield were counted, Prosser was named the winner. A statewide recount that ensued confirmed Prosser’s re-election.
The move came during a shaky political climate nearly two months after Gov. Scott Walker introduced his budget repair bill, which called for limits in collective bargaining for all public employees except for police and fire employees. Angry with Walker’s legislation, thousands of protesters descended daily upon the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Meanwhile, 14 Democratic senators fled to Illinois to avoid voting on the measure, effectively stalling the vote for weeks because the Wisconsin Senate did not have a 2/3rds majority present to constitute a quorum that was required for the financial bill. Republicans later changed how the bill was presented and passed the budget repair bill.
cj
1:32 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011
GIve it a break! Utterly ridiculous!
St. Swithin
1:58 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011
cj -
Why is it ridiculous? I am not saying she has definitely done something wrong. But we are talking about someone who was involved in a previous voting scandal and turned state's witness to avoid prosecution. We are talking about someone who was frequently in contention with the election board for doing things her own way. We are talking about suddenly finding extra votes that turned defeat into victory for her former boss. Given her past history this person should never have been allowed to be involved in vote counting. I don't know all the details of this issue and clearly neither do you. An independent investigation should be welcomed to get the full picture.
Shane
6:56 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
I'm not defending the clerk's competence, but there were no "extra" votes found. The record shows that all votes where counted on election night, the unofficial count was incorrectly reported the media. There never was a Kloppenburg victory.
bjr
2:21 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011
By "wrong" I assume you mean underhanded and that remains to be seen. Certainly worth investigating though if only to "further" prove her incompetence. Pretty major snafu during the shaky political climate wouldn't you agree?
Nate
2:55 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011
How ironic this joker was a former DA from Dane County. Liberal cesspool of WI. It was a bad blunder, but where is the fraud? People would be in a bigger uproar if it were the other way around, crying disenfranchisement. I know the left is upset because just like in 2000, Al Gore won prematurely in Florida, only to be disappointed by reality. This is just another waste of time you democrats specialize in.
Lyle Ruble
7:13 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
@Nate...You have such a rich fantasy life. This is a county clerk who is totally incompetent and should be fired, recalled, impeached or whatever.
Nate
4:20 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Lyle, if things were switched around I would have the decency to say it was a case of bad circumstance. As I said, Gore probably could have won in 2000, if the media didn't jump the gun on their reporting (They were to excited and salivating, I suppose). This scenario is nothing more than premature reporting as well.
shelbyanne
2:43 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Good clerks promote voting. Ones who say it is a waste of time have something to lose.
Craig
8:37 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Get real. She may be an idiot for forgetting to hit save, but she doesn't have a GOP agenda...why would she lose so many republican votes deliberately? If she went to work for Dane county and did this, one could claim the mistake was accidentally intended...but that is not the case. One could also argue she is secretly a democrat, mad at Walker for affecting her benefits and ignored those votes for Prosser to throw the election. The system worked, the error was caught and verified- the recount confirmed it...time to move on. There are erasers on pencils for a reason.
Nate
4:21 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
The donkeys just want to go to hanging chads so they can pretend Kloppenpooper won (for a second time).
tonybaggio
10:47 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
you guys happy with Walker? so be it, I'm from california, a guy like Walker would not last here.
Nate
6:58 am on Saturday, July 16, 2011
Well, yeah, who could even attempt to fix the terrible financial crisis in your state? Much worse off than we were.
Jane Pipia
8:02 am on Saturday, July 16, 2011
I agree Lyle Ruble!
Charles Haycock
8:33 am on Saturday, July 16, 2011
I hear the same old tired, comments from people from my former party, formerly the grand old party. I find it interesting that my conservative friends are quick to name calling, back room manipulation, and so on. Oh, and by the way, for the gentleman who called Madison a cesspool of democracy, does not know his facts well. It is a strong for the democratic party, but he doesn't remember Reagan carrying Madison, and other conservative candidates. I do not agree with the "new" republican party, and most especially the narrow focus of the tea party, and the back room manipulation of Walker, and his compadres. They are just as bad as the Democrats, trying to please everyone. They are trying to please a narrow group of people, and influence the whole based on their miniscule, narrow interests. I will continue to be independent, and vote for who is best for the job. I do not how anyone earning less than a million dollars can be republican now....