JoAnne Kloppenburg’ has asked state election officials for an independent investigation of anomalies in how Waukesha County reported vote totals from the April 5 election.
The request came with Kloppenburg’s request for a statewide recount in her race against Supreme Court Justice Dave Prosser.
Kloppenburg trails Prosser by more than 7,316 votes, according to the official county canvasses. The results are within the margin allowed for a taxpayer-funded recount statewide.
Prosser’s campaign dismissed the request for a recount as part of Kloppenburg’s “nakedly political goal” to challenge and disenfranchise voters who properly cast ballots April 5.
“Justice Prosser’s recount team will work diligently in the weeks and months ahead to protect the votes of Wisconsin citizens at the same time Ms. Kloppenburg’s campaign works to take them away,” said Prosser campaign manager Brian Nemoir.
In documents turned in to the Government Accountability Board, Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken writes there remain questions about Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus’ "ergregiously inaccurate report" of the count vote totals. They include why Nickolaus failed to include Brookfield’s votes in her initial tally, whether their omission was intentional, whether her explanation was truthful and why she failed to immediately correct the error upon discovering it.
The GAB investigation of the Waukesha County vote totals found anomalies but no major discrepancies between the official canvass and documentation the state agency obtained from the municipalities.
In a press conference calling for the recount, Kloppenburg said undervotes in Milwaukee and Racine counties, reports of long lines and photocopied ballots in Fond du Lac, and significant changes in the Winnebago County vote totals necessitate a recount.
See more on the documents:
http://elections.wispolitics.com/2011/04/documents-related-to-kloppenburg.html.
– WisPolitics.com
