By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 13th, 2011
The Wisconsin election for State Supreme Court justice is beginning to look oddly familiar–and once again, computer e-mails may help to uncover the truth.
To recap: It at first looked as though Joanne Kloppenberg won a tight election to sit on the State Supreme Court, beating conservative challenger David Prosser.
That outcome was celebrated by ordinary working people across America, as the union-busting legislation of Governor Scott Walker will soon be considered by that Supreme Court. An election win by Prosser–an ally of the governor–would spell almost certain verification of Walker’s action.
Then last Thursday, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus–an official with a shaky record who at one time was employed by Prosser–told the world she had discovered at least 7,500 votes that somehow had not been counted in her original vote tally.
And guess what? Miracle of miracles! Those suddenly appearing, ‘misplaced’ votes were just what Prosser needed to take the lead from the more liberal Kloppenberg.
SEIU–the fastest-growing union in the Americas, according to its mission statement–recently published some very interesting statements on Nickolaus and the Wisconsin Supreme Court election debacle:
“Just one year ago, county officials ordered an audit of Waukesha County’s outdated election system,” after it was discovered that “Nickolaus [had] removed election data from county computers and installed them on personal computers in her office.
“Even before this issue, Nickolaus was resistant to an independent and thorough review of her election system,” continued SEIU. “Now she wants the public to believe that some 7,500 ballots for Prosser were somehow lost on her personal computer.”
Last week Kevin Kennedy, who serves as director and general counsel of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB), dispatched staff to review the ever-changing vote tally in Waukesha County.
U.S. House Representative Tammy Baldwin [D-WI] has asked the the feds to investigate these disappearing and re-appearing votes. Rep. Baldwin wrote the Justice Department:
“I share the concern of my constituents that these reports [about election count disparities] raise serious doubts as to the integrity of the electoral process in Waukesha County and, by extension, our entire state.
“To ensure that the April 5th election for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice is free, fair, and transparent, and to uphold faith in our democracy for ourselves and future generations, I ask for your immediate assistance in investigating these election inconsistencies in Wisconsin.
“Specifically, I urge you to immediately assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section, which oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes, to investigate the questionable handling of vote records.”
Favstocks on Monday published this interesting item:
“There is a strong possibility that there are incriminating emails on the hard drive of [Nickolaus’] computer that can explain why these votes – if valid – were held out for two days,” stated Favstocks, “or there might be correspondence pointing to a broader election counting ‘enhancement strategy’ that was coordinated for Prosser.
“[Journalist] Greg Palast did tremendous investigative work in revealing how emails [tied to]… Harris’s office played a decisive role in decreasing the Gore vote count in 2000.”
Indeed, the Wisconsin matter does remind one of the 2000 presidential election. In Florida, then-GOP Secretary of State Katherine Harris appeared to do her part in delivering the 2000 election for the Republicans.
Here’s what happened that time around: In 1998, Florida officials hired DBT Online Inc. to identify felons who have not had their voting rights restored. State officials must remove felons’ names from voter registries, in accordance with Florida law.
According to Palast, DBT Online’s top brass supported George W. Bush for president in 2000.
Though strangely it received little attention from the American press during the infamous “Bush/Gore recount” in 2000, a handful of news organizations–and, later, an official U.S. Civil Rights Commission Report–declared that the company had ‘incorrectly determined’ several thousand innocent citizens to be felons without voting rights.
Most lived in Democratic strongholds – all were wrongly denied the right to vote that year.
So is Wisconsin Labor’s Florida? Only time will tell.
