Fraud in Wisconsin

Well, the Republicans couldn't afford to lose the (non-partisan) Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Republican-backed justice David Prosser and Democratic-backed challenger JoAnn Kloppenburg. And, as it turns out, they won't, thanks to County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus. To quote ABC:

But officials in heavily Republican Waukesha county now say they discovered a counting error that, when rectified, gives Prosser an additional 7,582 votes.

Waukesha county clerk Kathy Nickolaus blamed the error on her failure to save results from the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield on her database. She told reporters, "This is human error which I apologize for."

Bullshit. Prosser looked to be losing by a razor-thin margin of 204 votes, and Nickolaus suddenly magically pulled an additional 7,582 Prosser votes out of thin air?

Then again, it would have been easy; she was keeping the election results on her personal computer, not the county's election computer system. Makes adjusting vote totals with a few keystrokes that much easier. And that much harder to verify or audit.

Wisconsin Assembly minority leader Peter Barca didn't exactly say bullshit about the results, but you could find it between the lines in his statement:

The way Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus revealed her discovery of 14,300 previously uncounted votes raises disturbing questions, particularly in light of her past partisan history. She has been the subject of multiple complaints from other Waukesha officials on how she handles elections and keeps public information to herself outside the official county system where others can verify it.

The new Supreme Court race vote totals she "discovered" during canvassing not only swung the election but also put the race just barely past the amount needed to trigger a state-financed recount.

It is especially troubling that she waited more than 24 hours to report the startling discovery and then did so at a press conference and only after she verified the results. This makes it all the harder to challenge and audit the integrity of the vote. . . .

County Clerk Nickolaus, who worked in the Assembly Republican Caucus under then Minority Leader and Speaker David Prosser, has a history of clashing with county officials over her election responsibilities. She has drawn criticism from the County Board Chairman and other County Supervisors as recently as January for her unwillingness to adhere to audit recommendations.

(Text bolded by Editor.)

If it looks like fraud and smells like fraud...it is fraud. This election was stolen, pure and simple.

PS - For those of you paying attention - why was Prosser's lead suddenly Nickolaused to +7500? Because Prosser needed just about that much to avoid a recount under Wisconsin state law. Pretty effing convenient.