The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) has completed its inquiry into the Waukesha County vote count, which put David Prosser into the lead by 7316 votes, and has found the vote count to be accurate, with only a handful of questioned votes.
As reported by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The state’s top election watchdog agency has satisfied itself that results certified by Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus for the April 5 election are consistent with totals reported by municipalities, though “a few anomalies” were found in a four-day investigation.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Government Accountability Board staff said, “After completing the review of the election materials from Waukesha County, there were some discrepancies found in the Government Accountability Board’s evaluation of the Waukesha County election returns that could not be explained based upon the documentation reviewed.”
They amounted to only a handful of votes.
The GAB statement explained the steps that were taken to verify the vote count:
The review was conducted over four days and focused on auditing the Spring Election materials, including:
- Total Votes Cast Report from Voting Equipment
- Ballot Container Security Seals/Documentation
- Inspectors’ Statement- Election Day Log
- Write-In Form
- Security Documentation of Voting Equipment Memory Devices
- Certification Page of Poll List
All documents were photographed or scanned and any relevant data was recorded by G.A.B. staff. The total votes cast record reported by the voting equipment was compared to the official canvass report from Waukesha County. The ballot container security seals were compared to the required documentation record maintained by the appropriate election officials. The total number of voters recorded on the Inspectors’ Statement and Certification Page of Poll List were compared to the total number of ballots cast, to ensure there were not more ballots counted than voter numbers issued.
It’s over. The one county in question which could have made a difference has been verified after an extensive investigation.
Kloppenburg’s slim chance of prevailing in a recount just left town. Probably for Illinois.
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Comments
Whoo-hoo! Finally! Had the 7,000+ votes been recorded on the night in question, Kloppenburg would've known exactly how many votes she needed to steal the election. The numbers coming in late threw the Dem vote-stealing machine off kilter. That Kloppenburg did not immediately concede delineates an important distinction between Dems and GOP. Even in the face of a stolen election, the GOP will concede. The Dems? They never concede. They'll do recount after recount until they get the outcome they want, then they call a halt … and the stupid GOPers accept the Dem theft of the election. No more!
At the beginning of the article:
"though "a few anomalies" were found in a four-day investigation"
Who doesn't think that the liberals will not read past that statement? I'm sure they will be chanting that the race was "stolen" because of "anomalies" in the race.
Considering the votes had been noted by the press that night and sent to everyone but the AP, what exactly did anyone think they were going to find?
One day (soon?) people will understand that the 'unofficial' AP totals are just that, unofficial. There were no hidden votes, no 'unreported' votes and no found votes, they simply didn't make it into AP's totals.
That $50 contribution I made to help underwrite a pro-Prosser TV ad, at your behest, was in retrospect one of the most satisfying political donations I have EVER made. Thanks, Bill. God Bless you.
@Chuck – The key thing is to find elections where relatively small amounts can make a difference. That's something I hope to focus on in the 2012 congressional elections.
It appears the out of state interests who donated so much money to get Kloppenburg elected did not get their money's worth. They must really feel taken. Do they have a cause of action to get their money back?
They could pull a Gore and attempt to recount only the heavily Democratic counties. Think it would work?
What ever came of the 12,000 / 5,000 voters in Colorado?
From the actual GAB report statement itself:
"After completing the review of the election materials from Waukesha County, there were some discrepancies found in the G.A.B.’s evaluation of the Waukesha County election returns that could not be explained based upon the documentation reviewed. The official Waukesha County canvass for the reporting unit of City of Delafield Wards 1-7 recorded one additional vote for candidate David Prosser that was not included in the total votes cast report from the voting equipment. The County Clerk believes this was a provisional ballot. However, we have not yet verified this information. Additionally, two separate reporting units, the Village of Menomonee Falls Wards 20 & 22 and City of Waukesha Ward 36, each recorded a write-in vote for candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg on the Write-In Form. Neither of these write-in votes appear to be included in the official Waukesha County canvass. Finally, there were discrepancies identified with write-in votes and how they were reported in the official canvass. There is no information provided in the materials the G.A.B. reviewed to explain these anomalies."
So, the official upshot is that there is a possibility that ONE addition vote should have been recorded for Prosser, and a possibility that TWO additional write-in votes should have been recorded for Kloppenburg.
Possibilities, mind you . . . there was no certainty in the report regarding whether those three votes were counted by the relevant municipal clerks!
And, the report also notes that a few "discrepancies" remain regarding how certain "write-in" votes were recorded, with no indication whatsoever that this could in any way affect the Prosser/Kloppenburg totals, particularly given the fact that both Prosser and Kloppenburg were on the ballot.
When she "reluctantly" concedes today, Joanne Kloppenburg will make a lot of noise about those discrepancies. She’ll likely even try to suggest that the outcome could still be in question, but that the public interest in settling the matter outweighs the possibility.
However, count on her to remain silent about the equally serious question of why it somehow took the Democrat clerk in Milwaukee County a week and four days to cough up an accurate sum total for a column of figures reported to the county following the election, including canvassing corrections made in the immediate aftermath of the election.
And speaking of Slim leaving town . . . here you have it!
Slim Pickins (aka, Major Kong), that is.
According to WISC-TV_News3>, Joanne Kloppenburg will announce today at 4 pm at Warner Park whether or not she will seek a recount of the vote for the seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (See also the tweet by Mary Spicuzza of the Wisc. State Journal)
re: recount.
Prediction: she will stick the taxpayers with the cost of a recount.
thanks for the update, Trochilus.