Politics & Government

Waukesha County Clerk Introduces New Ballot Bags

Kathy Nickolaus plans to implement new bags for Spring 2012 election.

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced in a news release Monday that she introduced the concept of plastic ballot bags during the Wisconsin County Clerks convention in Rusk County last week.

The release from Nickolaus states that she brought forward the idea of using plastic ballot bags because of concerns of ballot security during the statewide recount in the state Supreme Court race between Justice David Prosser and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. During the recount, several ballot bags had rips or cuts, caused by ballots rubbing inside the bag, according to the release.

“This new concept ballot bag, uses the security of permanent sealing tape, currently used on bank bags, and will be made of a thicker plastic than what is currently being used in the state,” Nickolaus said in the news release.

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Spring 2012

Nickolaus said in a phone interview she hopes to begin using the new ballot bags during the Spring 2012 election. Other clerks from Wisconsin counties are interested in purchasing the new bags, including Dane and Milwaukee counties, Nickolaus said.

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Nickolaus said the bags are similar to bank bags that can’t be opened once they are sealed.

“If the tape is tampered with, it leaves a mark that says void,” Nickolaus said. “It can not be reused – the bag or the seal.”

Nickolaus said she began researching the different types of bags following the spring state Supreme Court recount by checking with other states’ county clerks and bank bags.

The new bags will be easier for poll workers, less costly than the current election bag system that uses ties to hold the bags together and would be more secure than the current process, Nickolaus said in the interview.

GAB takes a look

Nickolaus’ news release also states that the new bags were shown to officials from the Government Accountability Board during the conference.

“The bag meets all the state security measures that are currently in GAB rules, as well as the 2009 proposed new rules,” Nickolaus said in the news release. “The clerks got an acknowledgement from GAB staff that ballot bags could be transparent.”

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.

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.


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