State Elections Officials Travel to Waukesha

State elections officials said they were traveling to Waukesha County to inspect and verify the county's voting results in the state Supreme Court race, after the county said it from the City of Brookfield. 

"Because of the attention on vote totals from Brookfield, I am dispatching staff to Waukesha County today to review the business processes and verify the reported results in the election for Supreme Court justice," Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Government Accountability Board, said in a statement.

Also Friday, state AFL-CIO officials planned to rally at the Waukesha County Courthouse at 4 p.m. to call for a "thorough investigation into what happened and a detailed explanation as to how these 'errors' could occur."

Kennedy said in his statement that "our election system is administered by people, and some problems are bound to occur. However, our post-election canvass system is designed to identify any errors and correct them."

Kennedy said he has been in "close contact" with Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus since her press conference Thursday evening and "directed her to make the official results from the polling places available for public inspection.

"These documents are public records," he added. "I believe she is now taking steps to ensure transparency and public confidence in the official results."

Kennedy noted that vote tally changes have occurred in nearly a dozen other counties. However, none were as large as the big increase in Waukesha County's votes for incumbent Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.

County clerks have until April 15 to submit their final tallies to the state.