Conspiracy Characterizes Reaction to Uncounted Waukesha Votes

In the wake of Thursday’s stunning news that Waukesha County failed to report over 14,000 votes in the city of Brookfield, a cacophony of allegations quickly swirled around the unexpected turn of events.

As soon as the news was confirmed from Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus at a Thursday evening press conference, the topsy-turvy race between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg for a ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court took another leap into the bounds of the unpredictable and incredible and in turn, has caused many to leap full-on into the conspiratorial realm.

Now, no one is defending Ms. Nickolaus’ competence or lack thereof, and it certainly does not help her credibility that she has been the subject of audits and complaints regarding her antiquated and unreliable record keeping. There is no question that an investigation needs to take place to explain and prevent this from happening again on such a large scale.

But the head-first dive into conspiracy reveals a hypocrisy to match the already unbelievable events in Waukesha. A sampling of statements in the last 24 hours:

• “The mysterious, and arguably timely, discovery of ballots on a personal computer appears to be the latest example of Governor Walker and his friends unfairly using the levers of government to silence Wisconsin voters…this is yet another reminder of the lengths this administration will travel to side with partisan politicians and corporate donors rather than Wisconsinites.”- SEIU Press Release 4/8/11
• “But in order to steal the election, they NEED to be able to keep a recount from occurring, because a recount would expose their attempted fraud to the light of day…They will do EVERYTHING they can to make sure NO ONE checks the paper trail. Because the paper trail will be the nail in their coffin.We must not let them succeed in this attempted fraud.” – Daily Kos “Why Prosser Needed EXACTLY 7500+ votes…” 4/7/11
• “It stretches the bounds of credibility to think that over 14,300 votes were somehow “overlooked” until two days after the election.“- Sen. Mark Miller (D-Madison) 4/7/11
• “Tuesday, the people of Wisconsin took away David Prosser’s seat on the Supreme Court. And yesterday, the Waukesha County Clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, served as Prosser’s sleazy accomplice trying to steal it back.”– One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11
• “Wisconsin is facing the largest potential election fraud case perpetrated in the history of this state and law enforcement must act immediately.”- Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11

Reflected in these statements is frustration and denial at the thought that despite months of anger and marching in the streets, despite the efforts of millions of dollars, and despite the fairly effective attempt to make a non-partisan judicial race a referendum on Governor Scott Walker, a narrow majority of Wisconsinites still turned out and voted in favor of Justice Prosser.

But how come no one is worried about the potential disenfranchisement of over 14,000 voters in the city of Brookfield? Is it because the majority of them appear to have voted for Justice David Prosser? Is it because it is a heavily Republican area? Are the over 3,000 voters of Brookfield who voted for JoAnne Kloppenburg part of this conspiracy to steal as well?

What happened in Waukesha was an error. A major error. But the canvassing process worked. It detected the error, and there was enough time to correct it. A representative from the Waukesha Democratic Party, Ramona Kitzinger, was part of the process and confirmed that “we went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did. Those numbers jibed up, and we’re satisfied they’re correct.” As we have seen the numbers ebb and flow from all 72 counties in Wisconsin, it is abundantly clear that errors occur in data entry and tabulation everywhere. Often times, elections aren’t close enough for these corrections to change the outcome. This one did.

The Left is justified in being mad, frustrated, and disappointed about the likelihood of losing a Supreme Court election that they spent millions of dollars on and thought they won. But isn’t making sure that everyone’s vote was counted more important, even if those votes happen to come from a heavily conservative county?