Calls Mount for Investigation of Waukesha Black Box

Update: See Wisconsin Common Cause: Count Every Vote in Contested Supreme Court Race (Mary Bottari in Huffington Post)

If there is nothing to hide, Waukesha County officials will welcome investigation into its secretive fiefdom that tallies and counts votes.

Where are the cries of "fraud" from the Republicans? Why no demand for investigation from Republicans, who claim loudly concern over the integrity of our election system?

Calls for investigation from other non-GOP folks pile up by the day:

• Scandal in Fitzwalkerstan: Federal probe, full recount required in high court race
• In Waukesha County, Fiefdoms, Pockets of Power Abound
• WAUK-esha, don't run
• Save our Supreme Court
• Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin Asks U.S. Attorney General to Investigate Wisconsin Supreme Court Election

GOP Hates Democracy; It's That Simple

Update: See Some [Rightwing] Media Knew Details of Waukesha Voting Glitch Before State Election Authorities.

As the GOP considers how to suppress votes with their anti-democratic and anti-Constitutional (Wisconsin's) Voter I.D. and End Same Day Voter Registration bills, notice the lack of GOP protest over the action of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.

If the Dane County clerk had declared counting votes to be his/her private fiefdom, secret and accountable to no one, he or she would driven from office and cast as a fool and betrayer of democracy.

Not the GOP,  Nickolaus just guaranteed her future in the Party by declaring her commitment to getting power with no consideration of democracy.

Regardless of whether Nickolaus turns out to be as incompetent as she claims, the GOP again stands exposed as holding Wisconsin democracy in contempt. That is: Not a GOP-only club. Rather a process predicated upon values and rights.

WaukeshaGate: Prosser's Former Underling, Now-GOP Co Clerk, Finds 14,315 Lost Votes

County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus increases Prosser county vote by 17 percent

Update II: GAB Dispatched to Waukesha. Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) raised the possibility of an independent investigation over the recovery of the votes. "This is a serious breach of election procedure," he said. "We're going to look further. She waited 24 hours to work this. And she waited until after she verified the results, making it that much more difficult to challenge and verify the results." (Stein, Walker and Glauber, MJS)

Update: "There is a history of secrecy and partisanship surrounding the Waukesha County clerk and there remain unanswered questions," said Scot Ross, director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. He added, "Her computers need to be seized and a forensic expert needs to go through them as if a crime could have occurred." (WSJ)

The same 13-year Assembly Republican caucus computer specialist who last year insisted—over the objections of I/T experts concerned about integrity of election data—that her election results collection-tallying system must be placed under her personal control for "security" (MJS) reasons now claims to have found 17 percent more votes for GOP Justice David Prosser, after an incident in which she claims to have personally failed to save some election results.

Nickolaus claims "she failed to save on her computer and then report 14,315 votes in the city of Brookfield, omitting them entirely in an unofficial total she released after Tuesday's election." (Stein, Walker and Glauber; MJS)

Prosser said in a statement: "I'm encouraged by the various reports from the county canvasses."

Prosser, Nickolaus' former boss, made no comment specifically on the circumstances surrounding Nickolaus in which Prosser's total county vote was increased by 17 percent.

Others are demanding forensic investigations and full transparency from the secretive clerk, amid the suspicious circumstances and allegations that Nickolaus' story does not add up.

Nickolaus cited "human error" that she was glad to have discovered before the expected recount, though Nickolaus apparently sat on this error in tallying for 29 hours before right wing bloggers reported the news.

From the Kloppenburg for Justice Campaign: "Wisconsin voters as well as the Kloppenburg for Justice Campaign deserve a full explanation of how and why these 14,000 votes from an entire City were missed. To that end, we will be filing open records requests for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the County. We are confident that election officials in Waukesha County will fulfill these requests as quickly as possible so that both our campaign and the people of Wisconsin can fully understand what happened and why. Just as Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg has run to restore confidence in the court, Wisconsin residents also deserve to have full confidence in election results."

The state Government Accountability Board is expected to audit the entries that Nickolaus made into her system during an anticipated recount.

Nickolaus says she found out about the unsaved data at noon Wendesday. She then "sat on this information for 29 hours before disclosing it." (Citizen Action, see below)

Also clouding the circumstances is the report that a comparison of Waukesha and Dane counties shows that Waukesha County has three times more Supreme Court-only ballots than Dane County.

Citizen Action is calling for a federal investigation, noting:

While it is far too early to judge all the facts of the situation, there are so many apparent discrepancies and contradictions in the currently available fact-base that a full, impartial, and independent investigation is clearly warranted. These warning signs that should trigger a full and independent investigation include:

During her press conference Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus claimed this was an open and transparent process. Yet According to Nickolaus she found out about this at noon yesterday. She then sat on this information for 29 hours before disclosing it.

According to 3 observers who attended the county vote canvass, the issue of 14,315 additional votes from Brookfield never came up in the room.

While it was hidden from the people in the room, others involved in the process, Charlie Sykes, a representative of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, National Review, and conservative bloggers had the story hours before it was announced.

Kathy Nickolaus has a long history of questionable practices in vote counting. The issue of Nicklaus keeping records on her personal computer was central to the audit conducted on her last fall. Was the “human error” she is apologizing for her own personal error made on her personal computer? She has been repeatedly warned about the danger of that process and criticized for keeping information 'secret' from even others with in her own office in the past.

Class Act v. the Sad Man

Scott Walker: "You've got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everyone else out across the state." (WSJ)

Walker's Judge lost and Walker is not happy.

Turns out "everyone" is a perverse description for our state where the Walker Judge lost 31 of the 71 non-Dane counties.

Turns out the Walker Judge lost the popular vote of the voting public across the state.

Class Act

Asst. AG JoAnne Kloppenburg ran in the face of near-constant lies backed by assorted big money liars such as the Koch brothers which massively outspent rule-of-law forces.

Throughout the barrage of lies, Kloppenburg ran on the explicit promise to serve on the top Court as an impartial judge ascertaining the law and the facts.

Kloppenburg, no natural politician, never wavered: A class act who does honor to the idea of a judicial branch of government.

Prosser the Sad Man

David Prosser squawked around the state, memorably complaining, "I feel like the victim of a drive-by shooting. Here I am, I’m walking along, I should win this race going away. But I mean, not if people aren’t thinking about what they’re doing." (NYT, April 4, 2011)

You don't vote for Prosser, you don't think. Right.

I'm sure that Prosser does feel like a victim; like he can never stand up and speak the truth.

Prosser peddled his votes on Court cases, not his impartiality and dedication to law. He trolled for company like the desperate man he is, unsure the Koch Brothers could turn around his losing campaign.

The sad man, ashamed and desperate, v. the Class Act.

As the recount begins: May the better person win.

AP Numbers: JK Wins! Sykes hits panic button

Update VII: JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory this afternoon!!!

Update:VI: J-Klop wins; AP has all numbers in and JK lead of 204 votes. WTMJ calls it for J-Klop.

Update:V:  J-Klop lead at 206; One precinct remains: Jefferson County. MJS (Marley, Sandler and Stein) reports at 1:02 p.m.: "The Jefferson County Clerk's officer reported that Prosser picked up only 2 votes in the electronic vote in Lake Mills and that 24 handwritten ballots were not yet counted. ... "

About 220 votes were cast in Town of Lake Mills - seemingly not enough for Prosser to make up the votes he would need to defeat Kloppenburg."

Check AP for update.

Update IV: J-Klop lead at 224 votes; three precincts left

Update III: Sykes already in high damage-control mode; calls for reports of "voter irregularities."

Update II: Kloppenburg takes 309-vote lead! Five precincts left.

Update: Keep updated at AP. Twenty-four precincts left; Prosser margin at 800-plus votes. No cost for a recall with vote margin within some 7,000 votes. Still, lots of variables out there. Dunn County has posted its numbers in its two remaining precincts; AP does not have them yet but Kloppenburg will pick a few-hundred more there. See Dunn County Unofficial Election Results.

If JoAnne Kloppenburg wins the remaining 34 precincts to report (including 12 precincts in Milwaukee) by an average of 18 votes per precinct, she'll win by 20-some votes.

Thirty-two of the 34 remaining precincts are in counties Kloppenburg is winning. (Kos)

See the AP tally.

A recount seems very likely at this point.

A friend writes:

No matter the outcome at this point, we won and Scott Walker lost.

Kloppenburg came from out of no where to maybe beat a sitting Supreme Court Justice, who has the support of Koch-funded groups that spread tons of lies, massively outspending rule-of-law forces.

Too Close to Call

Recount Possible

As the state watched Dane County battle Waukesha and Washington counties (reporting suspiciously late as their turn-out was not heavy) after 11:00 P.M., Fond du Lac County was reporting 0 of 77 wards in, due to unpredicted massive turn-out that had election officials scrabbling to make new ballots.

Fond du Lac County

Fondy at approximately 11:20, and home of recall target Sen. Randy Hopper, supplied what proved to be, some three hours later, [too-close-to-call-now] margin in the race.

Kloppenburg captured 39 percent of the vote, outperforming Tom Barrett who last November won 34 percent of the vote.

Kloppenburg's losing margin in heavy-GOP Fondy is some 6,000 votes v. Barrett's 11,000.

Updated - At 09:31 pm: 50/50, Supreme Court REPORTING 32%

10:07 pm CDT Supreme Court REPORTING 55%

Joanne Kloppenburg 438,201 takes the lead.


----
No Madison wards reporting yet.

Fitchburg District in Dane County Reveals Expected High Turn-on

With Madison and Dane County turn-outs skyrocketing, this time the GOP is staring at the defeat many expected in November 2010.

A working-class district (composed of traditionally lower turn-out wards) in Fitchburg had a turn-out at 17 percent by Noon, with the high-voting period to come.

The writing is on the wall.

JoAnne Kloppenburg for Victory

Thinking Northcentral Wisconsin and the Fox Valley will supply the victory margin.

David Prosser in Milwaukee: Look How Biased I Am

Prosser - Outed and exposed

David Prosser, outed and exposed as corrupt, touted his votes in front of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee Tuesday. (Sandler, MJS)

The problem is Prosser is trolling for votes in the manner of a desperate politician, not an impartial judge seeking to find out what the law is and how it applies to cases that come before the state's top appellate court.

As we have written here before: Justice David Prosser goes out of his way to declare his bias towards specific communities of interest and certain classes of litigants, as well as fidelity to his political party.

Prosser's opponent, "Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, called [Prosser's] statements inappropriate for a judicial contest. ... Kloppenburg said a judge shouldn't use his rulings to seek political support. ... Prosser 'has this partisan approach to being a judge.'" (Sandler, MJS)

National Review Tries to Masculate David Prosser

Justice David Prosser

You can tell much about the perceived deficiencies of Republicans by efforts of their hacks to imbue certain politicos with improbable qualities.

With George W. Bush, we were treated to reports of how much he read and how freedom-loving he was. Truth is Bush was incurious, dogmatic and authoritarian.

Among these clumsy branding attempts, the National Review Online (Robert Costa) today has a desperate, comical 2,300-word column which includes the supposed quality of Justice David Prosser. See Wisconsin Fight Goes to Court. And Walker’s big win could ride on a single judicial election.

Here's how Prosser is described in NRO: "Gruff."

The truth is Prosser is a whiny, quarrelsome man who lost his 1996 race as a Republican nominee for congress in the right-leaning Wisconsin 8th district because he was a bad cultural fit for the bigoted milieu of traditional gender roles that predominates in Northeast Wisconsin.

Well, I guess Prosser has to be gruff today, up against those vicious liberals hiding among the palm trees of Madison winters.

Hulking thugs at Capitol

Writes Costa, "As the dust settles in Madison, Wisconsin Republicans face a troubling coda: Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill is being tripped up in the courts. Union heavies smell blood. And the unruly parade of lefty activists and hulking Teamsters that occupied the state capitol for weeks is back for a bruising final round."

Costa might wish to read some classic Christopher Hitchens before Costa embarrasses himself with his o-f-f descriptions on the nature of David Prosser and the Wisconsin pro-worker movement:

Union Thugs Pretending They Are Cops

In his imperishable Treatise on the Art of Political Lying, published in 1714, Dr. John Arbuthnot laid down a standard for falsifiers and calumniators that has yet to be excelled:

Detractory or defamatory lies should not be quite opposite to the qualities the person is supposed to have. Thus it will not be found according to the sound rules of pseudology to report of a pious and religious prince that he neglects his devotions and would introduce heresy; but you may report of a merciful Prince that he has pardoned a criminal who did not deserve it.

Scott Walker Regime Requires Inattention and Despair from Citizens; They Won't Get It April 5

Update: NRO: "To win, GOP officials say [David] Prosser will need to draw strong numbers from emerging conservative pockets in Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, and Racine counties. If voters from these areas don’t show, but liberals pile into voting booths in Dane County and Madison proper, Kloppenburg could cruise to victory."

There's talk voter turnout in the Spring election (April 5) will be massive, perhaps rivaling the November 2010 election featuring a U.S. Senate and gubernatorial race.

The 2010 general election turnout was nothing to write home about: Half of eligible voters did not cast a vote, giving Scott Walker a 52-47 percent victory that he mistook for a mandate from God.

Still, it beats the typical Spring election, twenty percent turnout in a good year. Citizens tune out.

In 2010, a mere 26 percent of eligible Wisconsin voters cast their lot for Walker with the disastrous consequences that may be averted thanks to the furious and newly politicized Wisconsin families.

But the people who didn't vote—or voted for Walker expecting something different—had what Walker needs: Inattention, apathy and despair. He won't get that this election.

As for policy misunderstandings and expectations, Walker isn't fooling anyone any more. And neither is the GOP stooge, David Prosser.

This time voters are tuned in.

Prosser Equals Walker

The results from 2010 paint an unusual electoral picture.

The two most populous counties, Milwaukee and Dane, gave Walker an electoral thrashing: 61-37 percent, and 67-30 percent respectively. Together, Milwaukee and Dane counties comprise a full 25 percent of the statewide vote.

But that was not enough to defeat Walker though historically a Democrat carrying Milwaukee county with the above margin spells victory.

In the post-Walker-served-three-months political era, the anti-Walker margin will increase in Milwaukee and Dane counties where Walker first launched his blitzkrieg before declaring war on the rest of the state.

In the big statewide race between the Walker-loving, child molester-protecting Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, and the facts-and-law candidate, JoAnne Kloppenburg, there is ample cause for optimism.

Consider Fond du Lac, Dodge and Portage counties.

In Fond du Lac and Dodge counties combined, Walker carried 65 percent of the vote. I guarantee you this performance will change substantially for the Walker-supporting GOP hack, David Prosser whom even his right-leaning hometown newspaper refused to endorse.

In Portage county, Walker carried 42 percent. Prosser will not come close to that figure in April.

Sixteen state senators are the object of recall campaigns.

This means in a phrase: People know. They're paying attention and are engaged.

It's what democracy looks like. And democracy is a horrifying image for the likes of Walker, Fitzgerald, Hopper, Prosser, Darling, the whole miserable bunch of autocrats, liars and hypocrites.

Look for the defeat of the Walker-loving David Prosser to herald the recalls of the Republican Eight. Then next year: On to Scott Walker.

JoAnne Kloppenburg Runs Facts-and-Law Campaign

By Michael Leon

I took some flak here for criticizing both Louis Butler Jr. and Justice Michael Gableman, 2008 candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Butler—now a blocked nominee for federal judgeship with no outraged GOP cries of "up-or-down-floor vote"—and Justice Gableman both disgraced the judicial office they sought to hold, I asserted.

'Don’t worry about the result; just tell me what the law is.’

Such a directive ought to be the mission, objective and goal of every justice of the state’s top appellate court, the Wisconsin Supreme Court. ...

If one were to ask candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2008 their commitment to the above principle, one can expect a declaration of absolute fidelity, right? ... [Y]ou would not deduce the presence of this judicial ethos from the campaigns of the two leading candidates for the [Supreme Court], Louis Butler and Judge Michael Gableman. (February 5, 2008)

Since 2008, we have seen two candidates for Wisconsin's high court who dared to edify the electorate in the function of the state's top appellate judicial body—stressing the imperative to be impartial, and avoiding political demagoguery.

These two jurists honor the bench: Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, now a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Abrahamson ran a facts-and-law campaign and won reelection decisively in 2009.

This election, we also have one candidate running a facts-and-law campaign: Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Kloppenburg opponent, Justice David Prosser, on the other hand, goes out of his way to declare his bias towards specific communities of interest and certain classes of litigants, as well as fidelity to his political party, a committment Prosser unconvincingly goes on to deny when called on this corrupt stance in office.

From Kloppenburg:

In two weeks, Wisconsin voters will elect a Supreme Court Justice.

You and I share the belief that Justices must be independent, impartial and committed to deciding each case on the facts and the law.

That is the kind of Justice I will be.

Independence, impartiality and committment to facts and the law.

That's refreshing. And in the face of an often lawless Scott Walker administration, committment to facts and the law is imperative to preserve the state of Wisconsin as a functioning democratic entity.

Fight War on Families; Call Your Senator

Find your state senator here.

Beginning this week, Walker and the GOP will try to push through legislation, they say, will combat the massive voter fraud that resulted in their election that allegedly gives Republicans their mandate to strike at state, county and municipal workers, our neighbors, our friends, and our families.

Walker, if successful, will drive families to bankruptcy, jeopardize college plans, and inflict stress on already over-stressed, working parents.

But I do not believe for a moment that most GOP senators have any idea how badly families with state, county and municipal public workers will be hurt by what Walker is doing.

Call your state senator here.

In November 2010 some 26 percent of eligible Wisconsin voters cast their lot in the gubernatorial election for Scott Walker, handing Walker a narrow 52-47 victory.

Walker claims mandate to end collective bargaining and local control

Walker now claims a mandate to dismantle public union collective bargaining, and a state-mandated end to local control in county, school district and municipal governance.

Think it's your school district your property taxes pay for? Think again, it's Walker's or so he believes when Walker has political scores to settle and power to grab.

Local communities and families are collateral damage in Walker's war for Walker.

Putting aside aside Walker's absurd assertion that citizen demands for radical change in labor negotiations catapulted him to victory, one notes Walker assures us the 2010 legislative elections reveal a similar call for initiatives that just happen to weaken the political infrastructure of his opponents.

And no compromises, Walker says.

Walker claims mandate to end local control of health care

And that includes no local control of Medicare, Family Care, Senior Care and Badger Care because that's what the voters want, and this just happens to coincide exactly with what the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers want.

Family and senior health care are collateral damage in Walker's war for Walker.

Depoliticized is dangerous

The number of Wisconsin citizens who can name their state representative and state senator, their political affiliation, and policy positions in this age of 30-second TV campaigns is low.

Most families are straining to make ends meet.

It strains credulity to contend a mandate for targeting Wisconsin families, as Walker does.

Wisconsinites like most Americans are depoliticized; though as Walker's schemes become known outrage and betrayal are the common resulting sentiments as we have seen in the streets around the state.

Walker claims mandate to end same-day registration and mandate voter qualifications

Beginning this week, Walker and the GOP will try to push through legislation, they say, will combat the massive voter fraud that presumably resulted in their elections that give Republicans their allegedly powerful mandate.

It just so happens that our fellow citizens who are most vulnerable to be being obstructed from voting from the GOP legislation—college students, blacks, browns, and the working class—lean Democratic.

Other GOP initiatives targeting Democrats specifically and families generally will be presented in the coming months.

Elect JoAnne Kloppenburg over David Prosser

Most of Walker's agenda will face vigorous legal challenge in the court system, so it is critical that we work to elect independent-minded jurists.

In the state's highest court, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Justice David T. Prosser, rakes in money from the same ideological special interests who fund Walker.

Walker, a petulant man, in his 18 years in the state assembly says he soaked in plenty of GOP money, and brags about his GOP connections: "Well, let me say this. I have the most partisan background of any member of the court." (Zweifel, Capital Times)

Prosser will face JoAnne Kloppenburg, Assistant Attorney General, dedicated to the rule of law and impartial adjudciation in the state's top appellate court.

But Prosser's campaign manager felt so comfortable in Prosser's loyalty to the GOP cause that he said a new Prosser term would protect the "conservative judicial majority and [act] as a common sense compliment [sic] to both the new [Walker] administration and Legislature." (Lueders, Isthmus)

Now, Prosser says he really didn't mean it, all that GOP money means nothing to Prosser when votes on cases before the Court. Right.

One critical step in restoring some sense of decency in Wisconsin politics is the election of Kloppenburg over the GOP tool, Prosser.

We have seen the results when we voters stay home.