UPDATE: County Results Problematic; Wartman, Lambert Re-Elected to School Board
Patch's hand-count of results for the Elmbrook School Board show both incumbents winning. The Waukesha County clerk's office, which said it would post local results online, posted few results, and asked the media and campaigns to tally up votes.
Update (1:30 p.m. Wednesday): Patch story details the election night reporting problems that involved races including Elmbrook School Board, with reaction from Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' GOP and Democratic re-election opponents.
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Update (10:40 a.m. Wednesday): Nickolaus said her plans to directly upload results from local government election machine packs failed to work, causing hand-tabulation and delays in releasing results, according to this report from JSOnline.com reporter Laurel Walker, who was at the County Administration Building last night.
Nickolaus faces challenge to her re-election bid on the November ballot.
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Update (8:47 a.m. Wednesday): The Waukesha County clerk's office released these unofficial, unaudited results with Wartman, Lambert winning re-election: Wartman: 7,347 | Thomas: 3,977 | Lambert: 6,060 | Byrne: 5,168
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Original story (1:07 a.m. Tuesday): Unofficial results more than four hours after the polls closed Tuesday showed the two Elmbrook School Board incumbents winning re-election to new three-year terms.
Those results showed:
Meg Wartman: 7,346 votes (65 percent)
Lynne Thomas: 3,973 votes (35 percent)
Jean Lambert: 6,060 votes (54 percent)
Paul Byrne: 5,164 votes (46 percent)
The results, however, were tabulated by a Patch writer who added the numbers from voting machine tapes at the Waukesha County Administration Building.
The Waukesha County clerk's office, which said it would post local results online, posted few results, and asked the media and political campaigns to hand-count, using voting machine printouts taped to the walls around a room.
Prosser race prompts changes
The change came after Clerk Kathy Nickolaus was criticized for not posting results online in last spring's state Supreme Court race, in which the entire City of Brookfield votes were left out of the county's total results on election night. The error flipped the winner in the razor-thin election from Kloppenburg, who had declared victory, to Prosser.
Had Nickolaus posted results online, someone would have caught the zeros for the City of Brookfield in the countywide total, some critics said.
This year, Nickolaus told municipal clerks to drive the election machine vote packs to the county, where they would be directly uploaded and the results posted online when permissible.
However, hours after the polls closed, the county's site had no results for any elections. Media and campaigns who didn't want to wait while the county double-checked its results were given the opportunity to get the results immediately (as fast as they could hand count) from voting machine printouts taped to the walls of a room.
As of 11:30 p.m. the clerk for the Elmbrook School District told Patch she was calling it a night and had not seen any results from the county. Pat Felde with Elmbrook said she did receive the School Board results from municipal officials as the Village of Elm Grove and Town of Brookfield.
The City of Brookfield clerk's office left late Tuesday after delivering the results to the county, leaving the reporting to the county.
Wartman 'gratified' by re-election
Reached at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday after Patch tabulated the City of Brookfield votes for Elmbrook School Board from the machine tape, School Board member Meg Wartman said she was gratified to be re-elected.
"I hope they stand up," she said of the unofficial results.
"I'm humbled to be re-elected," Wartman said. "I'm looking forward to the next three years."
She said she appreciated the show of support, particularly after a difficult year in which she and the board voted to close an elementary school.
"Hopefully, people appreciate the time and energy we’ve put into the transition plan so that we can make the move easily" for Hillside Elementary School students merging next year into Brookfield Elementary School, she said.
The board's focus for the next three years will be on curriculum, now that the financial outlook improved with the state's Act 10 and the school closing, she said.
Lambert said she was happy to hear the results but said she would comment more Wednesday, given the late hour.
- For more on the Brookfield elections, see Patch's story with live updates on Election Day, as well as a story on incumbent aldermen winning re-election.
morninmist
6:44 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
What is with the constant problems? --election after election, there always seems to be snag somehow.
Kelly Steele @steelekelly
Somone appointed to independently oversee results needs to come in & run Waukesha for Walker recall. Enough is enough. #wielex #wiunion
morninmist
6:51 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Defend Wisconsin @DefendWisconsin
Voter thwarted in Waukesha for lack of ID http://bit.ly/HRsyDn #wivote #wiunion #wirecall
Voter thwarted in Waukesha for lack of ID
By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel
April 3, 2012
Waukesha - It took persistence - and a second trip to her Waukesha polling place - by a 63-year-old Waukesha woman to vote Tuesday. But she said her 87-year-old mother who couldn't make the trip back was disenfranchised by a poll worker who asked to see a photo ID.
Wisconsin's new voter ID law was in place for the February primary but not for Tuesday's general election after a judge ruled it was unconstitutional. The photo ID requirement is on hold while the matter is appealed.
The woman, who asked not to be identified because she and her mother were embarrassed, said she ended up calling the Government Accountability Board for help.
Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the board, confirmed Tuesday that the incident happened.....
R Denis
8:25 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
BS
Julie
8:12 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Meg Wartmann humbled???
R Denis
8:26 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Congratulations to the Elmbrook School Board members who were reelected. No four year old kindergarden.
Rik R
6:22 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
If Waukesha voters re-elect this women, they are fools. She is obviously incompentent. In fact, she should resign as this is the third election in the last 2 years she has botched.
morninmist
7:11 pm on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Even the Right leaning MSJ is calling for Nickolous to step down!!
Kelly Steele @steelekelly
MJS ed board: Waukesha's Kathy Nickolaus must step down before WI recall elections: http://bit.ly/HVu7Ox #wiunion #wirecall #recallWalker