Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus Will Not Run Again

After gaining national attention — and plenty of cricticism — for a series of election snafus, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus has decided not to seek re-election this fall.

Nickolaus told the Waukesha Freeman she would step down on Dec. 31 and said she wanted to see the electorate focus on getting other Republican candidates elected to office in November.

"It's time to close the door on this chapter of my life," Nickolaus she told the newspaper Friday. "So much has been focused on me, but now it's important that positive energy is spent on the re-election of Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald."

But a report by JSOnline.com questioned whether Nickolaus intends to back away from upcoming gubernatorial recall elections or not. In a prepared statement, she said she would not relinquish "any authority or responsibility," adding "I am the Waukesha County constitutional officer charged with the responsibility of elections."

Nickolaus' decision comes less than a month after her office came under fire for lengthy . Some results weren't available until 10 hours after the polls closed.

She also was was criticized for , 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.

There have been several calls for her to resign, which she has refused to do.

After the April 3 election problems, County Executive Dan Vrakas told Nickolaus that he would publicly call for her resignation if she didn't turn over election duties to her deputy clerk.