State Board Cites Errors, But Clears Waukesha County Clerk Nickolaus

Wisconsin Government Accountability Board says Kathy Nickolaus failed to properly report state Supreme Court election results on election night, but her conduct was not willful or criminal.

Updated 4:55 p.m. with Kloppenburg campaign statement: An independent probe into Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus found she likely violated state elections laws in her bungled release of state Supreme Court election results in April, but her conduct was not willful or criminal. Nickolaus failed to release the City of Brookfield's results on election night for the hotly contested race between incumbent Justice David Prosser Jr. and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Adding the city's 14,315 votes two days later flipped the winner from Kloppenburg to Prosser in a race that became enveloped in the controversial clampdown on public employee collective bargaining rights. Kloppenburg had declared victory on election night with a 204-vote lead …

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Lisa Sink

7:25 pm on Wednesday, October 5, 2011

OK, friends. Watch the language, please. Debate the issues without the cursing.   more ›

So Just What Did Justice Prosser Say Under Oath?

The Journal Sentinel has the audio from the investigation.

Prosser Declared Winner In State Supreme Court Judge Race

Prosser marked 7,006 more votes than Kloppenburg.

The Racine Journal Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are reporting the results of a contentious, and seemingly unending, State Supreme Court race between Justice David Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg. This means Prosser will take the bench for another 10-year term. Here's the Racine Journal Times story: Recount: Prosser won re-election The Journal Sentinel story: Prosser wins recount in Wisconsin Supreme Court race

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Prosser Has Net Gain With 10% of Waukesha County's Votes Recounted

The Waukesha County Board of Canvassers has counted about 11,000 votes after 4 1/2 days. Deadline to complete the county's 125,000-vote recount is May 9.

With one week before the recount deadline, Waukesha County has nearly 10% of its votes recounted, resulting in a net change of 12 additional votes for incumbent state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. The Waukesha County Board of Canvassers had counted about 11,000 of the county's 125,070 original votes cast, as of mid-day Monday. About 48% of all votes statewide had been recounted as of 12:50 p.m. Monday, or 718,230 votes of the approximately 1.5 million cast, according to the state Government Accountability Board. That did not include votes from 27 reporting units that were being reviewed by state elections officials. May 9 is the deadline for completing the recount, which was requested by challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg after she lost …

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Supreme Court Election Recount Starts in Racine County

Hand-count of votes expected to last until May 9.

A lengthy, tedious and historic election ballot recount started this morning, April 27, in a first-floor conference room in the Racine County Courthouse. County Clerk Wendy Christensen and two members of the Board of Canvass expect to work every day, except Sunday, through May 9 conducting a hand-recount of the approximately 52,000 ballots cast in the April 5 Wisconsin Supreme Court justice race. The statewide recount was requested by Joanne Kloppenburg who lost the election to incumbent David Prosser by 7,316 votes – or less than one half of one percent. In Racine County, election outcomes verified by the canvass had Prosser with 28,204 votes and Kloppenburg with 22,518 votes. Racine is one of 31 counties where the ballots are being …

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Chris Wright

10:52 am on Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sandy, Milwaukee County is estimating their cost at $500,000. So the other 71 counties making up the other 1/2 million is not out of the realm of possibility. The amount will vary from county to county depending on population and how they conduct the recount.   more ›

Software Delay Could Add $500K to Recount Cost in Milwaukee County

Racine and Waukesha counties also among those with outdated software that lacks memory to hold both original and recount votes.

A three-year delay in federal approval of updated ballot-counting software means the upcoming Supreme Court recount will cost Milwaukee County as much as $500,000 more than it would had the software been approved. The county has had $200,000 in its budget to buy the new software since the purchase was approved in 2008, said Lisa Weiner, elections administrator for Milwaukee County. “We have had to roll over the money for the past three years," Weiner said. "I’m not sure that we will be able to do it again if the software is not approved.” All or parts of 31 of the state’s 72 counties use the same outdated software and are awaiting approval to purchase the same new system. Racine and Waukesha counties are also affected. The cost estimate is…

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Waukesha County Clerk Embroiled in Controversy for Years

Kathy Nickolaus has seen "human error" from her office during prior elections.

With Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announcing she made an error on election night, which flipped the results of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race to favor incumbent Justice David Prosser, some residents are asking questions as to how often this happens. But for Nickolaus this isn’t the first time she has found herself embroiled in controversy. In 2010, Nickolaus and Waukesha County Board Chairman Jim Dwyer and county Department of Administration officials feuded about an audit of her election system. The audit stated Nickolaus is keeping election results on a personal computer as opposed to a county system. Nickolaus said she kept the results on the personal computer because of security concerns she had with the network. She and …

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bescher

2:39 am on Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ah yes TBONE a true liberal. The bad words are spewing. So you want to pay 7 million dollars a year on a train that isn't high speed, will have very few riders mainly because there isn't a good place that it would stop at in Madison. But yeah you want to spend my money. So how is the business making good money are you? How are your taxes? Just to let you know The worst cities in the US that are …   more ›

Democratic Counties Outpoll GOP Strongholds in High Court Race

Prosser's margin in the suburban GOP counties not enough to overcome Kloppenburg's wins in Dane, Milwaukee counties.

In the battle of the partisan stronghold counties, Dane and Milwaukee were the winners in Tuesday's Supreme Court election. Democratic challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg outpolled incumbent Republican David Prosser in Dane and Milwaukee counties by a wider margin that he beat her by in suburban Milwaukee counties, according to Patch's analysis of the state Supreme Court results compiled by the Associated Press. Prosser received 91,043 more votes than Kloppenburg in Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee and Racine counties combined. But Kloppenburg received 114,597 more votes than Prosser in Milwaukee and Dane counties combined. That's a net difference of about 23,000 votes in a race that was decided by a few hundred. Adding the total votes in the four …

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James R Hoffa

2:10 pm on Friday, April 8, 2011

You're joking, right? When did Prosser ever say that he would act as a compliment to anyone? Oh, that's right - he didn't. Those comments were made by his campaign manager who mispoke. When Prosser himself caught wind of this, he publically disavowed it. He did many times state that he was a judicial conservative, which is something very different from a political conservative. According to you …   more ›