We have been working, over the past week — digging into details, speaking with election officials — on a new article we hope to publish soon on the “recount” of the April 5th Wisconsin Supreme Court election between the Republican incumbent Justice David Prosser and his independent challenger Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.
If all continues apace, the article will follow up with details on still more disturbing new “irregularities” discovered recently during the continuing count in Waukesha County and elsewhere across the state, following on our earlier reports of wide-spread irregularities such as“wide open” ballots bags in Waukesha and elsewhere, ballots discovered unsecured on the desk of a city clerk, and inaccurate counting in Milwaukee. In all, the unavoidable fact we continue to see is that, thanks to Wisconsin’s woeful election procedures, pathetic chain of custody requirements, and horrible secret vote-tabulation computers, nobody can know for certain whether thousands of ballots being counted today are the ones actually cast by voters on Election Day.
Taking all that we’ve learned into account, one might even conclude: This is no way to run an election. But more on that soon.
In the meantime, in her first official public statement since her April 20 press conference announcing her intention to ask for a “recount” and a special investigation of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, Kloppenburg speaks out today in an op/ed response to an embarrassingly obnoxious unbylined editorial by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board published last week.
The Journal Sentinel’s three paragraph, anti-democratic (small “d”) pot-shot last week — which may as well have been written by the campaign of Justice Prosser, criminally-inclined candidate whom the paper endorsed (even as they failed to disclose that point in their editorial) — was riddled with evidence-free assertions, and mocked the very idea of a “recount” as a “waste of time,” on the grounds that they believe “nothing will change in the election for state Supreme Court.”
The paper failed, sadly, to note that more than 2,600 votes have, so far, been discovered as originally mistallied by the state’s woeful computerized tabulation systems (and that’s with hand counts performed in only 31 of the state’s 72 counties) and the inability to confirm, thanks to the blatant violations of chain of custody, that thousands of votes being counted are actually the same as those originally cast.
Kloppenburg’s op/ed details some of the “irregularities” being found, but ignored by the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board, this way…
Many bags of ballots have been found to be essentially unsealed or ripped to the extent that ballot security is compromised. A stack of ballots, unbagged, was found in a clerk’s office. Ballots were found in voting machines where they had been left. Seal numbers on ballot bags and tags were not recorded in the inspector’s reports, creating doubt that the bags were properly sealed on election night.
Touchscreen voting machine tapes were missing votes, or worse, were entirely blank and had to be reproduced from machine memory to allow a recount of the vote.
The most widespread and systemic errors and anomalies have been discovered in Waukesha County. That county was already under a cloud, and this recount has revealed more questions about elections practices there.
“When races are this close,” the Asst. AG writes, “there is a significant public interest established both by statute and by common sense in determining that votes were counted and counted accurately.”
Unfortunately, that may no longer be possible and it’s a shame the Journal Sentinel failed to point that out in their editorial. One would think it might be of note to their readers.
“[T]here are appropriate and established steps that help make sure the outcome of elections, when in doubt, can withstand scrutiny. That, no more and no less, is exactly why this recount is so important,” writes Kloppenburg rather sensibly, in light of the originally canvassed razor-thin (0.488% margin) election outcome which seems to be failing miserably at withstanding the “scrutiny” she refers to.
With as many as 9 politically-charged state Senate recall elections likely to take place soon in the Badger State in response to the controversial union-stripping agenda rammed through the Republican-majority legislature at the behest of Prosser and Nickolaus’ former colleague Gov. Scott Walker, how embarrassing for the paper that they didn’t take the opportunity to call out the state on its deplorable election processes so that this shameful exercise might be avoided in those upcoming elections.
Instead, they chose to take unwarranted, inaccurate, undisclosed-interest conflicted, un-democratic potshots at Kloppenburg for demanding transparency, accuracy, and accountability in hopes that voters may have confidence in their own elections.
(For the record, to preempt embarrassment for you partisans out there, we have similarly supported post-election reconciliations many times in the past, for Republican, Democratic, “third-party,” and independent candidates alike. We would have done the same for Prosser, criminally-inclined or otherwise, as even our very first report on this election suggested. Election integrity is not a matter of Right v. Left, it’s about transparency, citizen oversight, self-governance, and right versus wrong.)
Of the three grafs penned by the Journal Sentinel editorial board last week, forcing Kloppenburg’s response today, we can find just one sentence with which we can wholeheartedly agree, the final one: “This is no way to run an election.”
It certainly isn’t. Too bad the Journal Sentinel’s editorial board simply chose to fail to point out why that is.
The journal sentinel is a corporate puppet paper.
The one thing that must not be revealed is the total sham that is the democracy show put on by the fascists. They are not quite ready for that to be revealed YET. The clown media will not cover all the “problems” in this election because for them they are not problems but the solutions they have to thwart the will of the voters thru the ballot box. And People are just not willing to face the facts either. They actively avoid reading about these kind of things even when confronted will glaring evidence of cheating and spoiled elections. It’s amazing to me that everyone knows that every other aspect of the election process is corrupt but still maintains their pathological faith in the integrity of elections.
I would like to see the list of NON – “corporate puppet paper”s
You can see by reading the comments on both the WSJ editorial and Kloppenburg’s response, with the thumbs up/down, that the WSJ readership doesn’t care much about democracy.
A shocking number of responses to the article online attack JoAnne Kloppenburg for protecting democracy. Are those responses really reflective of public sentiments or the result of fascist mobilization of their goons?
… JPP said on 5/17/2011 @ 2:04 am PT…
It is a very short list. We’re not talking incorporated mom and pop small businesses here. Do you like fascism? It’s happening now. Enjoy.
Brad writes:
To those who follow The BRAD BLOG all I can say is, stay tuned! — Especially if you live in the Badger state.
I’ve made several postings on the JS site and the typical poster there makes me cry for us as a nation. The vile and hatred towards someone wanting to make sure Democracy is served, is horrendous. They almost deserve what they get.
There are groups of retired and hired web posters who spend their day posting on these forums to control the spin. And the media in general stay away from stories that reveal the sham our elections have become. We have to start mocking our local news media “celebrities” when seen in public for their lack of journalistic standards. Call them out in front of their families for their abandonment of their DUTY to expose the powers that be. There is a reason the constitution protects them in that duty. Our democracy cannot survive without them.
Nice article, thanks for the information.
#4
Every since hillary clinton made the statement that “We are losing the information wars”..I have seen a change in online comments in my newspaper Bangor Daily News, and more random troll flame throwing. It seems that they will make comments on anything. Here in ME, the nurses have been on strike.That brought a torrent of comments as an example. Bashing nurses. Then when our tea party gov. started his draconian budget cuts after lowering property taxes…the trolls came out in full force. No facts ..just mean nasty comments toward the “libs”.
Democracy Now suddenly stopped showing the emergence of real democracy in Wisconsin…instead started showing clips of hillary clinton and obama every day.
The democratic websites have pretty much stopped reporting on Wisconsin. I would guess this is brought about by the old tried and true way of control…bribery.
#7
I have brought attention to the fact that the supporters of the laws being changed by our tea party governor which will hurt Mainers are supported by vile nasty commenters who also don’t care about Mainers. As an example, the insurance company lobbyists are writing legislation which will concentrate health care in southern Maine. Northern Mainers will have to drive 6 or 7 hours one way to go to the doctor.
I find more on what is really going on in Maine on Think Progress than in our newspapers. Sorry to hijack.
i am smiling at jk sticking up for us and for democracy
ty for reporting it brad…the one thing i did not see that i thought should of been specifically included is that bags with no listing on inspectors report were presented in waukesha…6 bags if my count is correct…so thru election night and the canvass no one noticed that..this would be like making a bank deposit with out a slip(rolls eyes),actually more like trying to take out w/o ever depositing…which ever it is..it is not correct or accurate
In reply to some comments…I’m not aware of a “non-corporate” print newspaper. A neighbor of mine, who worked at a Gannett paper for 30-plus years, said the owners considered news and editorial content to be “filler between the ads.” This is common, I am certain.
I think the McClatchy newspaper group has an excellent Washington bureau. Not sure about the stances of their many small-market local papers.
In national-scale print media, I consider The American Prospect, The Nation, certain writers for The Atlantic and Rolling Stone, Jim Hightower’s Lowdown, Mother Jones, all to be fairly high profile progressive media although not dailies, of course.
I read the Guardian and a few other foreign sources on-line; non-US-based media cover the US through a less-biased lens, IMHO…YMMV.
I have to agree with Kloppenburg on this issue.
I got an email from moveon.org today asking me to support a candidate in upstate New York because it was a “symbolic” chance to show the Rethuglicans that their agenda was wrong.
I wrote back that before I could give any money, I had to know what type of equipment was in use for counting the votes and whether the candidate had taken a pledge to assure that every single vote cast was counted.
No answer, of course.
Except for the rare few (JK, so far, seems to be living up to her promises) both Democrats and Rethuglicans are quick to give up and “save their powder” and accept the system as “flawed but fair,” and other BS. Fact is, that the “flawed” system supports the status quo of two-parties and works against alternatives and showing the fundamental dissatisfaction with the status quo among the populace, so both mainstream parties, in the end, fall into line behind it.
Thanks again for another great one Brad.
And thank you JoAnne Kloppenburg for your continued fight for democracy.
Road to the Truth can be found at the following address: truenewworld.com
(attention, it is not the ad of the site – it is the ad of the Truth).
One typo to correct in the page header and title, Brad, where you give the newspaper name as ‘Journal Standard’ — and it should be ‘Journal Sentinel’. Thanks!
Yeesh. Brain dead. Thanks, Raven!
I am reading william blum’s book,”killing hope”, about the cia and military interventions since wwII. Everyone should read it. country by country the cia intervened (or intervenes) at the mention (or not) of socialism or land reform or nationalizing resources. privatization is what they want. country by country “we” stopped unions and fair elections. owned unions, even.
Blum wrote an amazing book here.
See how they mean(t) to ruin everything and how they kill(ed) hope and democracy around the world.
Bags of votes lying around? no chain of custody slips that are certain? impossible to tell now?
Sounds like it’s meant to be like that. too unbelievable. so …?
From the introduction of blum’s book, and on every page, you will cry when you read this history, and it’s been a long time, and it’s constant!- unless you’re , you know, from that side, you’ll be ashamed AND sad AND probably angry, as we should be.
Breitbart, for instance, and Limbaugh, for instance, are probably paid by … someone.. to keep us on the hardright path. free enterprise all the way. no libs. no libs wanted AT ALL.
As i say, read this book. could be called, “killing change”, as well. :^/ it’s nasty stuff. really nasty. taxpayer money for loathsome stuff.
There are lots of books about these things, but even gore vidal, helen caldicott, and noam chomsky rank this as one of the best or the best.
thanx.
and thank you, brad, for your meticulous follow throughs.
It’s all so important- to pay attention to and to stop pretending everything’s ok enough. it isn’t ok at all. all over the world pretty much and here, too. they’ve ruined democracy as much as they can. it’s their forte. is it fascism? as more and more are saying? are the well-planned (and multiple) “interventions” for us, too?