Wisconsin’s Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg has filed paperwork for a statewide, state-sponsored “recount” in the controversial April 5th State Supreme Court election. She has also called for a special investigator be named to examine questions about election results in Waukesha County, where the County Clerk’s procedures have come under fire both before and since the election.
Speaking to supporters at a press conference moments ago in Madison, Kloppenburg pointed to a number of reported irregularities around the state, including in Waukesha County, as well as Racine and Milwaukee and a number of other areas, which helped lead to her decision to ask for such a count. She also mentioned unusually high undervote rates in a number of districts that the campaign had examined.
“A recount may change the outcome of this election or it may confirm it, but when it is done, a recount will have shed necessary and appropriate light on an election that right now, seems to so many people to be suspect,” Kloppenburg said.
In response to a question from reporters, she added, “I’ve asked for a recount to determine what the right count is, and also to preserve confidence in the electoral process.”
Kloppenburg stated that her campaign would be asking for a hand count of ballots in several districts, and will work with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.), the state’s top election agency, to determine which areas should be hand counted. State recount procedures allow for a machine recount of paper ballots unless a hand examination is ordered by a court.
In response to critics of such a post-election examination of results, including from the campaign of her opponent, Justice David Prosser, Kloppenburg was unflinching in her response, saying they’ve called it “a drama and a circus. Actually, it’s called American Democracy.”
During her remarks, she also called for on the G.A.B. “to appoint a special investigator to professionally, thoroughly and completely investigate the actions and words of the Waukesha County Clerk.” That County Clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, a GOP activist and former employee of Prosser’s while in the Assembly Republican Caucus, has become the focus of a number of anomalies that have emerged in election results since Election Night.
“The recount will reveal if there were discrepancies in the Waukesha vote count, but going forward, an independent investigation needs to determine what the clerk did there and why,” she explained, while pointing to a number of still-unanswered questions about post-election vote tallies in Waukesha, including why it is that “conservative bloggers” were told about those adjustments before they were announced publicly.
“I don’t know what will happen in the recount, but we’re asking for a recount to determine what the proper count should be, and to help, from this point forward, to assure that elections are fair,” Kloppenburg said, stressing her belief that the count should move forward for the benefit of all voters in Wisconsin…
Results of the Supreme Court election have drawn close scrutiny over the last two weeks, as Kloppenburg’s unofficial 204 vote “victory” on Election Night turned into a 7,316 vote “loss” to the incumbent Prosser after his former colleague and GOP activist turned Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced some 14,000+ votes from the city of Brookfield that she says she failed to include in results announced on Election Night.
The election itself had become a proxy battle between supporters of Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial legislation stripping union members of their right to collectively bargain with the state, and those who supported the unions. Prosser, a partisan Republican, has vowed to support the state GOP agenda, while Kloppenburg has maintained she planned to be an independent jurist, guided by the rule of law rather than partisan politics. She reiterated again at the press conference today that she would not be aligned with unions or their supporters, but rather would proceed independently on the bench.
The court’s balance with Prosser still on it is weighted 4 to 3 in favor of the Right, and would likely change if Kloppenburg were to replace Prosser before Walker’s controversial measures make it to the high court where they are sure to be challenged.
After all 72 counties in the Badger State completed their canvass last week, Prosser held a press conference to declare victory and vow to block any verification of the unverified vote count, despite state law which allows for such a post-election verification if a candidate comes within half a percentage point of the reported winner. Prosser currently holds a 0.488% lead over Kloppenburg out of some 1.5 million ballots cast, after all counties have submitted their final canvass report.
It must be noted, however, the counties’ post-election reconciliations do not include verification of actual results to assure the oft-failed, easily-manipulated optical-scan computer tally systems used in the majority of the state accurately tallied the hand-marked paper ballots.
State recount procedures [PDF] allow for a hand count of paper ballots only by court order after a candidate demonstrates that such a hand count was likely to change the results of the election. Short of a hand-count, as election integrity advocates have called for, the ballots will be run through the same optical-scanners used to tally them previously. However, campaigns representatives will be allowed to examine each ballot before it is run through the scanner, allowing for a “virtual hand count” of sorts in the process.
We’ve got to get to KPFK to do our Wednesday 3:30pm PT radio show today, where we will be covering this story in more detail (you can listen live here). And, undoubtedly, we’ll have updates to this story later today/tonight as warranted. [UPDATE: Audio from our KPFK show coverage is now here.]
UPDATE 7:16pm PT: Raw video of the prepared portion of Kloppenburg’s presser remarks is now posted here.
Previous coverage at The BRAD BLOG of WI’s 4/5/11 Supreme Court election…
4/19/11: WI’s Government Accountability Board Finds ‘No Major Discrepancies’ in Waukesha County Canvass
4/18/11: Prosser Campaign Vows to Block a State-Sponsored ‘Recount’ in WI Supreme Court Election Debacle
4/15/11: Prosser ‘Wins’ WI Supreme Court Election by 7,316 Over Kloppenburg, According to Unverified Canvass
4/14/11: Waukesha, WI Follies: 97.63% Turnout in 2004? 20,000 More Votes Than ‘Ballots Cast’ in 2006?
4/14/11: ‘State Investigating Vote Irregularities in Waukesha County Going Back 5 Years’
4/11/11: ‘Democracy’s Gold Standard’ – A ‘Special Comment’ by Brad Friedman in the Wake of WI’s Supreme Court Election Debacle
4/8/11: WI’s Supreme Election Debacle (And What We Should, But Probably Won’t, Learn From It)
4/7/11:: Prosser Up by 7500+ in WI Supreme Court Race After ‘Database Error’ Discovered by Controversial Clerk in Republican Waukesha County
4/6/11:: WI Supreme Court Election Virtually Deadlocked, According to the Machines Anyway
That was the best press conference I’ve been to all week.
Fantastic press conference by JoAnne Kloppenburg. Here are some more quotes from my rush transcript of the presser:
“A recount may change the outcome of this election or it may confirm it, but when it is done, a recount will have shed necessary and appropriate light on an election that right now, seems to so many people to be suspect.”
“My opponent, his political advisors and his lawyers don’t want a recount now. That surprises me. A recount benefits everyone involved in this election…”
“The right to vote is fundamental. It is a right that courageous people around the world fight and die for every day. In America that right carries with it a promise: that elections are fair and open, that results are untainted by deceit or fraud …”
“I feel that I have been a winner in any number of ways, whether I will have earned the most votes in the election is something to be determined by the recount.”
“Prosser campaign made threats … Their threats will not thwart our exercise our rights under the statutes.â€
“I am making this decision because it is right for me, it is right for my campaign, it is right for my supporters and it is right for all of the people of Wisconsin.”
THIS IS HUGE!
Brad, please follow this closely and let us know what you (and those you collaborate) see. We need your reflections on the process – perhaps here in WI we are so caught up in our “but this is Wisconsin, not Chicago” attitude that massive amounts of fraud have been going on for years and no one bothers to look.
But also remember: ELECTION FRAUD DOES NOT EXIST IN A VACUUM – IT EXISTS TO COVER OR CREATE EVEN LARGER CRIMES!
Please see the link below and HELP GET THE WORD OUT:
https://bradblog.com/?p=8482#comment-437852
Thank you so much for coving this election. I live in NE Wisconsin and I don’t get this level of reporting from any of our local media (and not as much from state-wide media, either!)
>”pointing to a number of still-unanswered questions about post-election vote tallies in Waukesha, including why it is that ‘conservative bloggers’ were told about those adjustments before they were announced publicly.”
This would explain something that I found suspicious. In his blog, conservative blogger Ryan Morgan began “theorizing” on the morning of April 6 that more votes would be found in Waukesha due to a tabulation error. Morgan: “Well, I have a theory that I want to be true… we really turned out okay and there are missing votes somewhere waiting to be discovered.”
http://fairlyconservative.com/2011/04/06/prosser-lost-the-election-in-waukesha-county/#comment-25444
He claimed to be arguing for this based on stats – and perhaps he did infer a tabulation error without receiving inside information from Nickolaus. But the way he lays out the argument in successive comments feels like he’s setting people up for the Nickolaus announcement, and his claims for what will be found are way too specific. For example – Morgan: “I am starting to EXPECT that we will soon discover that there are 10,000 to 16,000 more ballots in Waukesha county than what AP has reported.”
http://fairlyconservative.com/2011/04/06/prosser-lost-the-election-in-waukesha-county/#comment-25476
If Nickolaus was communicating about this with other Republicans by the morning of April 6, but withholding the info from the Wisconsin GAB and everyone else (and especially if Republican operatives were trying to set up the legitimacy of such a discovery to the public), what the hell is really going on – what game was being played here?
Obviously a HAND-RECOUNT is needed. The computer recount will simply be a matter of pressing the “print” button and getting the same numbers.
It worked for Al Franken and I hope it works for this brave woman.
Brad, your coverage is supreme! (heh, heh, get it – “Supreme). I just got it so no worries – :).
You go, Kloppy!
I am calling the Whitehouse and Attorney General regarding the recount. What happened is a crime scence. Each ballot should be examined for fingerprints, ink used. Every member of the Waukesha County, WI Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’s staff should be queried on where they were for 29 hrs.
And we need to watch the entire state for “Red Shift” in the voiting count. This election is a dry run for 2012.
Good for you Kloppenburg!
Wow.
A democrat with some balls.
I am amazed and happy.
Bravo!
Video of Kloppenburg presser available here.
Rooted in history, a public hand count is the most reliable and credible method of verifying elections. No method is perfect, but a hand count would allow for a form of transparency that is greatly needed in this election.
I am calling the Whitehouse and Attorney General regarding the recount. What happened is a crime scence. Each ballot should be examined for fingerprints, ink used. Every member of the Waukesha County, WI Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’s staff should be queried on where they were for 29 hrs.
This should have already happened if WE had a justice dept.No banksters have gone to jail for stealing trillions. No action in this dubious election . Fire Eric Holder and then disbar him.
CharlieL @ 9:
Actually, she’s an independent.
Pretty fucking exciting!!!
You just can never tell for sure how something will go.
Just have to keep acting anyway which is what we’ve been doing.
Brad, my dude. Who knows the dots but in my head I give you a ton of credit for this, at least momentary victory, for being one of the ones who’s so relentless on these election integrity issues.
Now to eagle eye how everything follows through.
You would almost think that John Fund was on the Wisconsinites side if you read this article, but don’t be fooled. In the opinion piece – of crap, (my opinion) – he says:
The commission was appointed during the Bush administration and it wasn’t “The Carter-Baker commissionâ€, it was “The Baker-Carter commission.
From a report at “The Raw Story†entitled:
comes this:
Fund is such a slimeball.
Daily Kos quotes the GAB:
My questions, Brad: What is to be gained by clearing the memory devices? Would that necessarily erase any malicious programs/code that may have been inserted into the central tabulators?
If you want to see how low our society has gone, go to jsonline.com and read the comments about the recount. I can’t believe how many people are against it. Or, how many automatically believe the election is stolen. It doesn’t appear anyone cares how accurate the vote is, just if their side won.
A recount and a special prosecutor to take a look at the election magic down in rabbit hole county.
Two good things.
WOohOOOOOOOT!!! Recounts are my porn.
I am *so* proud of Kloppenburg – that press conference was dreamy. And so proud of the voters of WI – wide awake. Just another way Wisconsin is NOT Florida.
Affins @ 5 – HOLY….WHA?! I want to know more.
In all of these strange election anomalies it seems there’s always a few people in the know…(REP PETER KING was it, who told Bush in 2004 the only thing left to do is the counting, and they’d ‘take care’ of the counting?) All kinds of especially sloppy tells.
Someone else here recently mentioned the swagger on Bush on election night, complete confidence in his victory despite the odds against / exit polls / wonky late night results in Ohio w/ Karl in the WH basement “working the numbers”…
Prosser’s reaction to the recount is very, very telling. Even Coleman didn’t go so far as to vow to obstruct a hand recount of the votes.
I have some concerns about the Circuit Court’s ruling on this case (as I’m sure we all do). Anyone have any more details on the history of this court re: election cases?
Affins ~ after looking at Ryan’s posts you link to – doesn’t seem quite as strange, ‘tho he does seem to be ‘leading’ some kind of narrative. But he may have just been picking up on the fact that Brookfield remained unreported at that time.
…but if that’s the case, why didn’t any one else notice that a whole county was missing? Especially one the size of Brookfield? *Especially* strange Ryan would pick up on it while the County Clerk of that very large county remained conveniently unawares.
Hi, my friend posted this video on her FB page. It’s evidently about 5 years old so Brad, I may be super slow on the uptake but I had never seen it. It’s a programmer testifying under oath in Fl naming representative Tom Feeney as a person who asked him to write a voting machine hack. wow. and nothing in the press of course..
http://youtu.be/JEzY2tnwExs
Welcome mightydave. Your comment @22 and link to Clint Curtis’ sworn Congressional testimony reflects that you’re new to The BRAD BLOG.
For your benefit, I am going to re-post a comment from a previous thread, to wit:
Brad broke the Clint Curtis story in this 12/6/2004 exclusive which links to Curtis’s sworn affidavit in PDF format.
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a trailer of Murder, Spies & Voting Lies.
In chronological order, are three films that every American should watch repeatedly:
“Hacking Democracy”
“Uncounted”
“Murder, Spies & Voting Lies”