Politics & Government

Waukesha County Vote Tallies are Correct, State Elections Review Finds

The state Government Accountability Board said Tuesday that its four-day review of Waukesha County's votes for the state Supreme Court race found no irregularities or errors.

State elections officials said today they found no errors in the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers' certified vote tallies in the state Supreme Court race.

The votes reported by the county's approximately three dozen cities, villages and towns match the numbers sent by the Board of Canvassers to the state, according to a statement by the Government Accountability Board.

State officials spent four days in Waukesha County reviewing the votes after Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced two days after the election that she had failed to include the entire City of Brookfield votes in her countywide tally on election night. The Brookfield votes, however, were detailed in a with information provided by the city clerk after the polls closed. 

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

a city of Brookfield spreadsheet of its votes into her countywide database, an error she said she discovered the next day but waited until after the canvass was complete another day later to report the winner-changing error to the state, the two candidates' campaigns, the city of Brookfield and the public.

State elections officials said Tuesday they were continuing to review the county's election processes and expect to issue a report on that aspect of its investigation — as well as questions about Waukesha County's votes in the 2006 state Attorney General election — in about 60 days.

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Nickolaus said in an email that she was happy the county's certified results were upheld by the state.

“I am pleased that the Government Accountability Board has concluded that a correction of the canvass is not warranted due to the fact that they found no major discrepancies in our official canvass report," Nickolaus said.

"I have been, and will continue to be, cooperative with the Government Accountability Board throughout this entire process.”

The state did find a few conflicting numbers in the Waukesha County tally but none serious enough to warrant changing the certified results. The state said the City of Delafield recorded one additional vote for incumbent Justice David Prosser that was not included in the total votes cast report from the voting equipment. Nickolaus told the state she believed it was a provisional ballot but the state did not yet confirm that.

Also wards in the Village of Menomonee Falls and City of Waukesha each recorded a write-in vote for challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg on a write-in form. But neither of the write-in votes appeared to be included in the official Waukesha County canvass. Finally, there were discrepancies identified with write-in votes and how they were reported in the official canvass, the state said.

"Although there were some anomalies identified, the G.A.B. found no major discrepancies between Waukesha County’s official canvass report and the documentation provided by the municipalities," the state said. "This does not warrant correction of the canvass absent any post election proceedings. A more thorough discussion of these anomalies will be provided in the agency’s complete report."

Prosser declared victory in a speech Monday, after the totals from the state's 72 county canvasses showed . Kloppenburg was weighing whether to seek a statewide recount, which would be free because the final margin was 0.488 or less than one-half of one percent of the nearly 1.5 million votes cast.

Here is the GAB's full statement:

"The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board staff has completed its review of election results from Waukesha County for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Justice David Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg.  A statement describing our review is attached.

"We are satisfied that the numbers reported by the municipalities were consistent with the numbers certified by the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers.  Although staff identified a few anomalies, the G.A.B. finds no major discrepancies between Waukesha County’s official canvass report and the documentation provided by the municipalities.

"G.A.B. staff members spent four days reviewing the election materials from all reporting units in Waukesha County, and interviewed Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.  We will continue our investigation into issues related to the reporting of vote totals on Election Night and reports from the 2006 election posted on the Waukesha County website."


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