Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let there be snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

No one could have predicted…

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / And Like That, All GOP Charges of Voter Fraud Vanished

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    Turgidson

    Per TPM, the lead has changed hands at least twice today. Who the hell knows where the final numbers will land.

    ETA: now TPM is saying Waukesha may have just found another 7,000 votes. Lame.

  3. 3.

    Cris

    This is going to be brutal. I may have to tune out, because there are going to be so many conflicting reports. We really won’t know anything until the final recount tallies are in.

  7. 7.

    Turgidson

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Me too. But I’m sure they’re just doing God’s work and/or counteracting the unmistakable vote fraud of the Acorn unions of gay death. Sigh.

  8. 8.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Apparently Waukesha county “forgot” to send in the votes of a whole town, meaning there will be about 7,000 more votes for Prosser. I don’t want to charge in screaming fraud, but-really? A whole town? In the most conservative part of Wisconsin?

  9. 9.

    Lolis

    @Turgidson:

    There is going to be a statewide recount, right? If so, we may still have the votes if there were simliar errors in blue counties.

  10. 10.

    Turgidson

    @Lolis:

    I imagine – unless these “found” votes push the margin big enough that Klop can’t ask for one anymore? I don’t know Wisconsin’s rules on recounts etc.

  11. 11.

    Sko Hayes

    Oh, yeah, a tweet from Chris Larson (one of WI’s Dem Senators):

    Heard rumor the Waukesha County Clerk was also the tech point person for Republican caucus during the scandals 10 years ago. #wiunion

    And a tweet from one of his followers:

    Interesting: Nickolaus is also past president of the Republican Women of Waukesha http://www.waukeshagop.org/womendir.html

    and one more about the scandal Larson refers to above:

    WAUKESHA — A candidate for Waukesha County clerk is one of several caucus workers who was granted immunity from prosecution in the criminal investigation into illegal campaigning on state time.Kathy Nickolaus, 42, a Republican, said she hopes voters will accept her role in the ongoing scandal — but she can’t talk about it.
    “I can’t really say anything about the probe,” she said. “I was offered immunity and I took it.”

    cached Google article here:http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:D0h0JyCaQlcJ:www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-86730728.html+republican+caucus+scandal+wisconsin+%22kathy+nickolaus%22&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

  12. 12.

    4tehlulz

    It’s like the GOP’s not even trying to be clever about their fraud.

    Though to be fair, if I knew the media would let me get away with it, I wouldn’t waste the energy either.

  14. 14.

    joes527

    OK. The possibility of fraud exists and should be guarded against. But like I said in the other thread. What we are seeing today is completely reasonable and wouldn’t even be noticed on a race that wasn’t sitting on a knife’s edge.

    Changing totals isn’t evidence of fraud.
    Klop.. (oh hell – however you spell it) pulling ahead isn’t evidence of fraud.
    Prosser pulling ahead isn’t evidence of fraud.

    7K seems like a lot of votes to find a day late. Hmmmm… almost .5% of the total vote. Yeah that does look extreme for a “mistake.” But the most likely explanation is still that this is a valid correction.

  16. 16.

    Turgidson

    I do vaguely remember that Waukesha had a bunch of outstanding precincts as the vote came in, then suddenly the AP said they were all reporting in, yet the raw vote total didn’t budge (or barely changed). That might be related to this weirdness, I suppose.

  17. 17.

    MobiusKlein

    is it 7k votes, or 7k vote swing, implying an even larger vote total? If it was a 7k swing in a 2/3 1/3 region, that’s 21k votes found.

    Worth looking askance at always.

  18. 18.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    @Turgidson:

    I think as far as law goes, they can still ask for one, but it’ll only be paid for by the election board if it’s within .5%, otherwise Kloppenburg’s campaign would have to pony up the expenses.

    @MobiusKlein:

    It was a 7k gain, as the found apparently 11k more votes for Prosser, with 4k more for Kloppenburg, resulting in a net gain of 7k for Prosser.

  20. 20.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Turgidson: I wondered if some of those were absentee votes. Like once they finished the Election Day count, they reported to the AP; then they went looking for the envelopes for the absentees, opened them — and there wouldn’t be very many in some of these localities — and then added them in. That way just a handful of new votes would get added to the tally, but the precinct would have fully “reported.” But I have no idea if that’s how it works.

  24. 24.

    lllphd

    @joes527:

    quite so on all counts. except that a republican with her history, and her knowledge of computers, ‘hoarding’ the results on her PC is actually highly suspect.

    the easy fix would be to launch – perhaps not so much a recount per se (tho one in stealth) – but an investigation into her computer and her spreadsheet software and double check all precinct reports with her computer’s record.

    perhaps that could be done at that county level without the costly statewide recount. and given the particulars of this case, it stinks to high heaven and deserves closer scrutiny.

  26. 26.

    lllphd

    wow; just visited the waukesha cty clerk’s website, and election results are not posted by precinct, just totals.

    the public needs to see precinct numbers; where does one go to do that?

  27. 27.

    joes527

    @August J. Pollak:

    Yes, amazingly, 7,000 lost votes were just found in one of the most strongly pro-Prosser counties in Wisconsin that just HAPPENS to be run by a Republican county clerk…

    All signs there point as strongly to ineptitude as to malfeasance. The clear is clearly full of herself and confident that she alone knows what is what. (a sure sign of stupidity)

    But … “finding” ~1% of the state wide vote bears looking into. I’d assume that the recount will be based on the data from the precincts and not the county roll up that got passed on. (is there a paper trail at the precincts, or are these voting machines that just say: “trust me?”)

    If a lone county clerk is messing with the roll up numbers … that would be easy enough to spot No one could possibly be stupid enough to try that

  28. 28.

    JPL

    OMG…”It was human error…maybe some macros in the program”…

    I had to turn off the feed.. sorry

  30. 30.

    lllphd

    ok, i’m beginning to feel kathy nickolaus’s personal computer needs to be impounded and investigated.

    i’d rather prosser win honestly than let this blatant oddity go unchecked.

  32. 32.

    Emerald

    This doesn’t matter. We got the emotional shot in the arm we needed yesterday. Even if it isn’t fraud at all, it looks, um, somewhat non-innocent.

    Ergo, this little “whoopsies! forgot a whole town!” moment only makes people angry, when if we’d lost yesterday, we’d have been seriously disappointed.

    Angry equals adrenaline. Disappointed equals defeat.

    I’ll take angry. There’s more work to do.

  34. 34.

    PaulW

    Okay, I worked on an election once in 2002 (in Florida no less). If I’m reading these reports correctly, the vote totals were being placed on someone’s personal computer?! That is, to my knowledge, illegal as hell. Only approved voting machines with proper security (which itself has been questioned from time to time with these new machines) should be tabulating results…

    The FBI and federal elections office better be racing to Wisconsin before the gov’t shutdown kicks in.

  35. 35.

    FlipYrWhig

    @JPL:

    ”It was human error…maybe some macros in the program”

    It wasn’t me, it was Clippy the Microsoft Office assistant! “It seems you are trying to count some votes, would you like some help with that?”

  36. 36.

    FlipYrWhig

    @PaulW:

    If I’m reading these reports correctly, the vote totals were being placed on someone’s personal computer?!

    The link August J. Pollak posted was in reference to a previous election, and it seemed to indicate that it was investigated back then, but I have no idea what current practice is.

  38. 38.

    Judas Escargot

    @JPL:

    …maybe some macros in the program…

    Let me guess: SUM(VOTE_COUNT, 7000).

    I shall now be quiet until more info comes in.

  39. 39.

    The Populist

    @joes527:

    If the people of Wisconsin lose this, they’d better turn out in full force to sweep every one of these fucks out of office. Once they do that, investigate this lady and determine if she willfully committed fraud on behalf of David Prosser.

  41. 41.

    joes527

    @PaulW:

    the vote totals were being placed on someone’s personal computer?

    Personal Computer as in: “Hi! I’m a PC.” Not Personal Computer as in computer-that-is-personal-property-of-someone.

    I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a law that says you have to use a Mac.

  42. 42.

    lllphd

    @Emerald:

    i disagree; it DOES matter. we could take this woman’s word for it, and with her assistants there, it may well be true, but did they look like they knew squat about computers? i mean, i’d like to see the reported results from every precinct, verified by each precinct captain, checked against her spreadsheet. this is what needs to happen. if it checks out, great; let prosser have it, but only if it’s real. we really can’t let this go without a deeper investigation.

    what could one do here? aside from requesting a recount, isn’t there some way to launch an investigation?

  45. 45.

    Sko Hayes

    @FlipYrWhig: LOL!! Who didn’t hate that stupid “office assistant”?
    “I see you’re writing a letter. Would you like help with that?” GAAH!!

  46. 46.

    joes527

    @The Populist:

    If the people of Wisconsin lose this, they’d better turn out in full force to sweep every one of these fucks out of office.

    If the people of Wisconsin lose this, then they have demonstrated that they (or at least 50.5% of them) LIKE the shit in their shit sandwich.

  47. 47.

    lllphd

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    just the voice i was hoping to see here. could an investigation be in order here? shouldn’t that computer be impounded? i mean, doesn’t this raise enough questions that a deeper inquiry should be launched without just taking this woman’s word for it? especially under all these several questionable circumstances?

  50. 50.

    BruinKid

    Guys, it doesn’t look like fraud here, just human error. The local paper in Brookfield DID report the results on Wednesday; they just weren’t factored into the statewide count. That city had 53% turnout on Tuesday. If that seems high, it actually isn’t for that city. 79% of the city showed up to vote in the Walker/Barrett gubernatorial race last November. And 53% isn’t even the highest turnout they’ve had for a lazy spring election in just the last 10 years.

    Nate Silver has been trying to explain these numbers make MORE sense than the Tuesday night results.

    Tweet #1:

    The numbers being floated about missing votes in Brookfield seem reasonable. Would be ~11% of Waukesha vote, same as in Prez election in 08.

    Tweet #2:

    Before missing votes were found, Waukesha’s turnout had been 7.5% of WI’s. Versus 7.8% in Pres ’08, 8.7% in Gov ’10, 8.7% in Feb. election.

    Tweet #3:

    So I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here … Waukesha’s vote total had been slightly lower than you might expect.

    The grumbling now should be about that Republican County Clerk losing her job for her sheer incompetence, but it doesn’t look like fraud here.

  51. 51.

    Sko Hayes

    @August J. Pollak: That is an incredible article.
    I loved one of the comments:

    for the last two days i have read post after post of you half-witted neo-fascists talk about boxes of ballots in vans. turns out you were right! however, they were not in the van of a union thug, they were in the back of
    a neo-fascist CEO’s lexus!

  53. 53.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @joes527:

    For the rich people in Sensenbrenner/Ryan-land, it isn’t a shit sandwich: It’s a tasty sundae of Fuck The Poor with a plutocratic cherry on top. and without them Prosser would have lost big.

    I think the “People vote against their self-interest because they’re idiots” meme doesn’t tell the whole story. The rich are voting very much in their self-interests. I’d love to see an income-based breakdown of who voted for who here.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @BruinKid:

    Oddly, I think I would still prefer a full recount of the county to determine if fraud occurred than rely on Nate’s statistical models. Call me old-fashioned.

  57. 57.

    Karen

    Not surprised. Would have been surprised if it didn’t happen. Now the drumbeat for her to concede will start.

    Basically, the gloves are off. Democrats will never ever win anything again. Either the GOP will cheat their fucking asses off or other fraud and/or if the Dems really win, the GOP won’t concede and it’ll be a waiting game.

    What I want to know is, why are all the gloves coming off now? Is it because they want to make damn sure Obama never wins? Or is it because they greedy pigs got tired of waiting for when the time was right and they finally realized that they could do whatever the fuck they wanted to and would be accountable to NO ONE.

    GOP rapes a girl? The girl had no business saying no.

    GOP kills someone in a car accident? The other car had no business following the rules of the road because the only rule that matters is that GOP are right all the time?

    It’s really going to take someone to talk me down from this because the way it seems now to me, we’re in anarchy, not a democracy.

  58. 58.

    lllphd

    @BruinKid:

    i’m so sorry; i’m a huge nate fan, but i’m not sure i buy his logic. where is it written that waukesha turnout would be the same as 08 presidential? that actually does NOT make sense to me.

    aside from those stats – which are way too abstract and hypothetical in any case – the actual circumstances of this situation are just beyond suspect. there needs to be an investigation. especially in light of this woman’s history with secrecy and with ignoring audits.

  59. 59.

    jah

    looks like the clerk is just extremely incompetent. all of the ballots should still be intact, as all of the state (i’m pretty sure?) uses optical scan, so there are paper ballots available for verification. how she doesn’t double check the results on Tuesday night before sending them off to the AP i have no clue.

  61. 61.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Karen:

    What I want to know is, why are all the gloves coming off now? Is it because they want to make damn sure Obama never wins?

    A lot of people say that it’s because we elected a black guy and that’s just made everyone crazy, but I think it would have happened even if we elected a white guy. The modern iteration of Republican craziness-the sort of blatantly corrupt, lying about everything, take no prisoners, salt the earth craziness-started when Clinton was prez, but before it could really work itself into a maelstrom, Bush got elected. So it was basically just lying in wait. It will die down when a Republican gets elected next, and rev back up when the next Democrat takes office.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @lllphd:

    I’d also be curious to see what Nate has to say about Milwaukee County, which apparently had a noticeably lower turnout than previous elections, going against the trend in most of the state.

  63. 63.

    The Populist

    @joes527:

    Amen buddy. I guess I was trying to be nice. Sooner or later people will tire of this kind of treatment. The 60s swept out a lot of these people and I can see it happening in the not so distant future.

    People will soon realize they can watch all the reality TV they want, but if their kids are doomed to not getting into college due to budget cuts, grandma can’t pay for that operation due to no medicare (or vouchers that won’t be enough to cover shit) and jobs are going away even more since daddy might be the local architect but his work is being outsourced to India where architects make less.

    You see, people may change their thinking when they realize the “american dream” was outsourced around the world and they got left holding a bunch of lies. People tend to be “conservative” in many areas until they realize that they will never be accepted by the richer class nor does any of that “personal responsibility, take care of ourselves” b.s. is crap.

    When Europe continues to see growth and America continues to drown in joblessness, debt and desperation THEN people will demand what they see in other places. Problem is, they will have lost a lot of the means to get this change thanks to Citizens United making sure the GOP are in full control, if there is voter fraud nobody will investigate unless a dark horse dem wins.

    You see, I have no faith that if people aren’t caring now about these issues (and thus they don’t care about their kids btw) to vote even in matters like this, they will find out that the system will be further rigged to keep the GOP in power for a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time.

    The youth will then fight back but will it truly change when corporations are people too?

  64. 64.

    losingtehplot

    So if people (i.e. mostly white men) show up in the Wisconsin polling places tomorrow screaming about being disenfranchised, etc., they better be wearing button-down shirts, ties, chino pants, prolly slightly overweight, with good haircuts, jus’ like good ole Florida voting reinforcers c. Bush 2001. If not, then they’ll just be subversers, pro-choice, pro-union, and fully deserving of being ignored, no matter how many numbers of dodgy votes they pull out of a top hat, find under the couch, etc. Voter fraud (or oops, sudden discovery of missing votes): IOKIYR.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lllphd: I am sure it will be investigated. The stakes are high and the numbers are close. Beyond that, I really have now idea right now.

  67. 67.

    quaint irene

    Seven thousand seems a little hinky to me.

    I think Professor Snape helped conjure them up.

  68. 68.

    BruinKid

    @lllphd: Oh, for that, what Nate means is that the city of Brookfield accounted for 11% of all of Waukesha County’s votes in 2008. That number should still be around the same. It wouldn’t make sense for one particular city to simply stop showing up to vote in comparable numbers to the rest of the county itself.

    With these 11,000 or so votes now tallied, the city again accounted for about 11% of the county’s vote total.

  70. 70.

    lllphd

    @Mnemosyne:

    not to mention the fact that we don’t know how long this same woman has been waukesha’s clerk, but it appears for all those elections he lists. could be none of them are kosher, either!

    i love stats; they’re fun. but omigod, they are sooo abstract. and if you get too thick in the weeds of them, they start telling you things that are so “true” about nothing that makes any sense.

    like i said, i love nate, but methinks he needs to rethink some of this.

  71. 71.

    The Populist

    @Karen:

    Hate to agree, but I feel somewhat the way you do. I feel like something happened we just aren’t quite seeing yet.

    I have always stuck by the idea that Obama’s doormat tendencies became worse when the GOP trounced the dems in the midterms. I can see Obama thinking that he tried hard to get health care for people and after all the work and fights, he lost.

    I can see him just shrugging and saying “why should I put myself out there anymore when the dems won’t keep the very party that left me this mess are now in full control of the house?”

    I know somebody will say poppycock, but seriously, I see it in him. Why should he work so hard to give the GOP a target when his own “base” doesn’t care enough to keep the GOP from taking control?

  72. 72.

    The Populist

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Who will do this? The Attorney Gen is a GOP stooly, Holder won’t do shit because Obama will refuse to rock the boat.

    This is more fucked…I am not a pessimist but I am losing faith day after day.

  73. 73.

    North_O_49

    @BruinKid:

    The only potential flaw in Silver’s numbers and statisitical models is that they assume numbers reported in for previous elections were correct (or correct-ish)… How long has Nickolaus had this post?

  74. 74.

    lllphd

    @Mnemosyne:

    yup. and a full recount isn’t really necessary. surely the precinct totals are listed somewhere that are not solely on the nickolaus PC; i assume this because that would be necessary for them to do the canvass she referenced in her press conference. fine; release those lists to the public. not so hard.

    i was earlier here complaining that her website only lists totals and not precinct totals. evidently, in the link august posted early on, i think, there is a reference to the fact that she stopped local listings, saying it wasn’t her responsibility.

    this, folks, is highly suspect. if the precinct numbers are listed, or even town numbers, anyone can go online and add them up (this is as it should be everywhere, and i can’t for the life of me figure why it’s not). as it is, we have to trust her figures. given her history, we should trust her why exactly?

    AUDIT!!! not recount, but a simple audit.

  75. 75.

    The Populist

    Let me walk something back, I will have some faith when I see some of the GOP Senators from WI get recalled. Show me that people of WI and you have me back on board the bus.

    Until then, I feel like I am being run over by a bus of apathy and it’s creeping into my thinking everyday.

    I am now that annoying guy who shrugs (holding back some tears) and says “they get what they vote for…oh well”.

    And Oh well is how I feel. I hope the people of WI enjoy dwindling standards of living. Blame Obama, blame the dems but the reality is that people need to wake up and realize the “both parties do it” crap needs to stop. Clinton went along with NAFTA and other b.s. exporting of jobs pacts. But if people were passionate to get MONEY out of politics by demanding more from their reps, then this is to be expected of pols.

    The right hides nothing from us when it comes to being the party of rich folks. Until the dipshits in the middle and on the moderate right side wake up and realize that their kids are screwed, their way of life is going bye bye and their rights are disappearing…it will get worse before it gets better.

  76. 76.

    The Populist

    Oh and when I refer to way of life, it’s not a tea bag race thing. I am talking about this idea that people who are middle class think they can be super rich one day too. I work hard and have done well for myself but I am far from rich.

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @The Populist: Government Accountability Board. A nonpartisan gov’t agency in charge of election oversight.

    Edited to fix name error.

  78. 78.

    lllphd

    @Karen:

    What I want to know is, why are all the gloves coming off now?

    perhaps a ray of hope in all this, i’d say the biggest reason is that they are really really a’scared.

    when you look at the numbers – young folks leaning toward progressive policy, registering dem, etc. – not to mention all the wedge issues falling by the wayside (gay marriage, pot, etc.), they will never have the numbers to win honestly.

    they’ve known this for a long time. since nixon, actually. hence the exponential increase in dirty tricks. and hence the authoritarian justification for doing whatever it takes to win because they’re in the right. and of course, god wants them to win.

    but honestly, bottom line – they are scared. that’s why they’re resorting to being bullies and cowards and mean-spirited sadists. they’re just eat up with fear.

    never forget that. it might even provoke some pity for them.

  79. 79.

    lllphd

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    agreed; and what was lying in wait was this deep-seated fear. they are petrified because they know they’re wrong. that’s why they have to bully; they’re cowards.

  80. 80.

    lllphd

    @The Populist:

    good point about walker, and would it even be appropriate for the state to act at this point at this local level?

    but who would do it? evidently the waukesha county board had trouble with nickolaus more than once, ignoring audits and smirking at discussions of her secrecy. that might be the only route.

    surely there are democrats in that county who could launch a demand for an investigation?

  84. 84.

    lllphd

    @The Populist:

    hokay, apologies for putting this out there for the third time now, but it would seem to me that dems in waukesha cty would be the ones to demand an audit, at the very least.

    someone needs to be impounding that damn computer! ASAP!!

  86. 86.

    lllphd

    @The Populist:

    i’m not at all sure why you would think it’s “apathy” after all that impassioned protesting in WI, for chrissake! get a grip.

    no, instead, what’s going on is polarization. for each of those impassioned cheeseheads there is a dedicated blockhead repug, all gnarled up in fear and loathing. lots of canceling each other out, and you get down to the ‘remains of the day’ if you will. one side or the other decides with just this relative handful of votes that are the difference.

    this does NOT mean the WI dems are apathetic; it only means the repugs are just as actively entrenched in their position.

    really, to use the word apathy after all those inspiring protests, …tsk tsk; you should be ‘shamed, pops.

  87. 87.

    Emerald

    @lllphd: Of course it needs to be investigated–and frankly, I’m betting on real fraud. Sorry, but I think you don’t just forget a whole town.

    However, my point is that we had to win that election to keep the emotional high going. We did that. Got a great shot in the arm yesterday. Now we can get mad, and hence, even.

    But whether it’s fraud or not, you’re never going to get most people to believe it wasn’t, so the Rs lose again. Their incompetence just turns Wisconsin ever bluer.

  88. 88.

    lllphd

    oh sheez; i’m down to talking to myself here!

    how embarrassing. i’ll scurry off to bed now.

    :-)

  89. 89.

    lol chikinburd

    @Emerald: Now to gain reassurance that Wisconsin “turn[ing] … ever bluer” will actually make any difference in future official election tallies.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Emerald: I agree with you, but I also know that I might be grabbing onto what you are saying as a life raft. You are definitely right that over 7000 just being “misplaced” is never going to sit well with people and I am really fucking pissed right now. This process will have to shake itself out. In good Wisconsin news, people filed enough signatures to get a recall rolling for another R senator.

  91. 91.

    Chris G

    @Omnes Omnibus: This. No final victories, no final defeats. If we win, great. If we lose, we dust ourselves off, study the loss, and study it for the next round. Keep calm and carry on.

  93. 93.

    Cacti

    It just looks like incompetence to me. Nothing fishy here, nothing at all.

    Not the least bit suspicious that the most Repub-friendly county would “discover” 7,000 lost votes mere days after their guy appeared to come out on the short end.

    2000 Florida redux. If you keep it close enough to steal, they will.

  95. 95.

    lllphd

    @Emerald:

    actually, we’re agreeing more than i may have conveyed. all i disagree with is the notion that this latest detail does not matter, although i do agree with your assessment that it will ultimately only serve to keep the dems fired up.

    the way this latest detail does matter is that it offers an opportunity – yet another one – for each side to show true colors. the repugs want to win, no matter what, to hell with the voters and the votes. dems can show – even emphasize – that we are just fine if the real results show prosser is the winner, but for the sake of election integrity and the public’s need to trust the voting system, this highly questionable piece of the puzzle needs to be thoroughly investigated.

    and dems should push this hard, while being completely open to the very real possibility that prosser will be the winner.

    and i don’t think it was incompetence; i think it may well have been fraud. either way, this woman’s methods are madness and need to be investigated.

  96. 96.

    lllphd

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    yeah, but rumor has it the repugs are filing against a dem soon, as well. dems may need more than just three wins to actually recover the senate.

    seriously, how would someone in waukesha cty register a complaint that would lead to an investigation of this woman’s computer and her methods? is there such a process?

  98. 98.

    Cacti

    @lllphd:

    and dems should push this hard, while being completely open to the very real possibility that prosser will be the winner.

    And if the Repubs want to sweep it under the rug and say “nothing to see here” (which they most assuredly will), we can all shed one more impotent tear over our country sliding further into banana republic territory.

  99. 99.

    lllphd

    @Cacti:

    well, it was really only the next day after the election, but still, it remains odd.

    and they clearly would have preferred to keep prosser in the ‘can’t lose’ column, i have no doubt.

    prosser may well have won, but this whole thing does stink to high heaven. were it the case that this waukesha clerk had a pristine reputation, was highly respected and transparent and had never presented any previous questions regarding her methods, then i don’t think i’d question this story; stuff happens.

    but combined with her history regarding this very type of problem, given these very concerns have been raised before and recently, the situation demands scrutiny.

  100. 100.

    Ron

    I’m mildly suspicious but this seems on the face of it to be more a case of incompetence than fraud. OTOH, I would like to be able to challenge votes stored on the county clerk’s personal computer.

  101. 101.

    lllphd

    @Cacti:

    and why should we allow them to sweep this under the rug?

    i hope i didn’t leave that impression. the fact of the matter is that prosser might well have really really won this. the polls were close, it’s just a fact. i’m just saying it’s more important to push for election integrity than for election wins. that’s what separates us from the knuckle draggers, isn’t it?

  102. 102.

    Chris

    @Turgidson:

    Well, isn’t that convenient. Prosser gets the lead, by just enough votes to dodge a recount, assuming that the local Republican hack county official who sounds *totally* high-minded and just “found” thousands of votes on a computer in her house, isn’t just completely fucking making shit up.

    Haven’t Republicans passed laws to counter this kind of voter fraud, or do those not apply to white conservatives?

  104. 104.

    lllphd

    @Ron:

    go here and here for good reasons to be suspicious of more than incompetence.

    after all, this woman brags about her 15 years of computer programming experience as an excuse to keep everything on her computer. and top secret. ignoring audits.

    stinks.

  105. 105.

    Cacti

    @lllphd:

    the fact of the matter is that prosser might well have really really won this. the polls were close, it’s just a fact. i’m just saying it’s more important to push for election integrity than for election wins. that’s what separates us from the knuckle draggers, isn’t it

    You didn’t give that impression. I’m just a pessimist and figure that’s how it will play out. Republicans don’t care a whit about integrity or the appearance of propriety. They care that these new votes put their guy ahead, no matter how dubious the circumstances.

  107. 107.

    TooManyJens

    @D-Chance.:

    And Like That, All Democratic Charges of Voter Fraud Appear

    It’s not our fault that nothing else notably fishy happened before this.

    (edit: in THIS race, obviously)

  108. 108.

    OzoneR

    !!!!!

    From DailyKos

    i blame the WI Democrats (2+ / 0-)
    for not holding back a town or two for just such an emergency…

    What do you think Daley did in 1960? (2+ / 0-)
    He held back most of the Chicago returns until the downstate returns were in. Dems used to know how to play hardball back when they actually used to win.

    I have to agree (1+ / 0-)
    maybe they had the Republicans number all along and were just fighting fire with fire – not saying that’s right, mind you. When one side cheats and the other doesn’t, and there are no consequences to cheating, guess who will always win?

    If this is what they mean by “fighting” count me the fuck out.,

  109. 109.

    Tom

    Brookfield is the one city in a group of areas that voted for McCain in 2008, but none of these voted for McCain like Brookfield. Feeding conspiracy theorists, this is the only city in this grouping, which has enough voters to significantly impact this election. http://higley1000.com/archives/121

  112. 112.

    lllphd

    @Cacti:

    Republicans don’t care a whit about integrity or the appearance of propriety. They care that these new votes put their guy ahead, no matter how dubious the circumstances.

    could not agree more. all the more reason for dems to push for this case in the interest of election integrity, whatever the ultimate result might be.

  114. 114.

    lllphd

    @rikyrah:

    are you thinking the WI DOJ? not likely; a walker stranglehold there.

    the US DOJ? not sure they have jurisdiction in statewide races? anyone know for sure? does this even fall under the voting rights act or (gasp) HAVA?

  118. 118.

    wonkie

    I want reiterate what has already been said: election officials never,ever put election data into their own computer, especially if the only access to the computer is through a password know only to the offical that owns the computer. At a very minimum that auditor needs to be fired.

    My mother was a county auditor. Elections have to handle data so that at every step from the voter to the final total every vote can be tracked and there is a professional chain of custody, kind of like the chian of custody of evidance in a crime scene. it is the auditor’s job to handle data so that there is no opportuity for fraud or the apperance of fraud.

    My own guess is that htere wasn’t fraud, It’s a wealthy area, very Rethuglican, lots of motivated voters, high turn out. She may very well have forgotten to save the data she was sent. Howevfer, by insertig her own computer and her own password iot the process she gave the apperance of fraud, which should get her canned.

    More likely to get her a promotion, however.

  120. 120.

    Bobby Thomson

    When it comes to real vote fraud, Republicans don’t fuck around. They don’t pay retail.

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