The Voting News Daily: Democrat on Waukesha County vote panel speaks out , Mayoral recalls gone wild

WI: Democrat on Waukesha County vote panel speaks out – JSOnline

The Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers who was widely quoted as endorsing the county clerk’s official ballot count that flipped the state Supreme Court winner last week said Monday that she was never told about more than 14,000 missing votes from the city of Brookfield until shortly before a Thursday news conference. By then, the three-member board had finished its canvass, which had started midday Wednesday. The Waukesha County Democratic Party released a statement Monday ascribed to Ramona Kitzinger, 80, a member of the canvassing board since 2004. In the statement, Kitzinger said that even during the canvass of Brookfield’s votes during the day Thursday, no mention was made of the big mistake, something in retrospect she called “shocking and somewhat appalling.” Read More

Mayoral recall drives go viral – USATODAY.com

Buoyed by the viral power of the Internet and rising anti-government sentiment, disgruntled voters have set off a rash of recall drives against mayors in cities across the USA. The urge to oust city leaders has intensified in the struggling economy as more mayors raise taxes and cut services to close budget shortfalls. Fifty-seven mayors faced recall attempts last year, up from 23 in 2009, according to Ballotpedia, a non-profit that tracks recall elections. So far this year: 15. Almost all have failed. Recalls are so frequent that the U.S. Conference of Mayors today launches a campaign warning mayors to brace for recalls. The effort includes a documentary-style film, Recall Fever: Stop the Madness. The film recounts recent recall efforts in Omaha; Miami; Akron, Ohio; and Chattanooga, Tenn. Full Article

Editorials: Lisa Pease: More Twists and Turns in Wisconsin | Consortium News

I’m still mulling over the recent Wisconsin election in general and the actions of Waukesha County’s County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus in particular. She was the one who forgot to record votes that would have made her former boss, Justice David Prosser, the winner in a hotly contested election.

After my first report on this strange set of circumstances, data surfaced to show that the missing city’s data had been reported earlier by the city itself. The numbers Nickolaus reported were an exact match. So it doesn’t look like anyone made up the numbers for the missing town’s results in Brookfield. And then there was the stamp of approval from Democratic Party member Ramona Kitzinger who said the numbers “jived” with what she had been shown.

National: Mayoral recall drives go viral | USATODAY.com

The urge to oust city leaders has intensified in the struggling economy as more mayors raise taxes and cut services to close budget shortfalls.

Fifty-seven mayors faced recall attempts last year, up from 23 in 2009, according to Ballotpedia, a non-profit that tracks recall elections. So far this year: 15. Almost all have failed. Recalls are so frequent that the U.S. Conference of Mayors today launches a campaign warning mayors to brace for recalls.

Wisconsin: Democrat on Waukesha County vote panel speaks out | JSOnline

The Democrat on the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers who was widely quoted as endorsing the county clerk’s official ballot count that flipped the state Supreme Court winner last week said Monday that she was never told about more than 14,000 missing votes from the city of Brookfield until shortly before a Thursday news conference. By then, the three-member board had finished its canvass, which had started midday Wednesday.

The Waukesha County Democratic Party released a statement Monday ascribed to Ramona Kitzinger, 80, a member of the canvassing board since 2004. In the statement, Kitzinger said that even during the canvass of Brookfield’s votes during the day Thursday, no mention was made of the big mistake, something in retrospect she called “shocking and somewhat appalling.”

Full Article: http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/119627189.html

Wisconsin: Statement & Account of Ramona Kitzinger, Waukesha Board of Canvassers member since 2004

On Tuesday night, I received a voice message from someone in the office of Clerk Kathy Nickolaus informing me of a Wednesday canvass meeting, which I returned the next morning and said I would be able to report into the canvass by noon – which I did. Normally the canvass would begin at 9am on Thursday, as has been the general practice for many years. No one explained why they were beginning the canvass on Wednesday, just to please report immediately.

Before this telephone call, I had not been contacted as the designated Democratic observer, and I saw no public notice of the abnormal canvass time. The phone call simply instructed me to report by noon to begin the canvass, which I did. The canvass then proceeded as normal, with no glaring irregularities or mention of a possible 15,000 vote error in Brookfield City.

Wisconsin: More Controversy Clouds Wisconsin Supreme Court Race | Wall Street Journal

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election that could affect a contentious union-rights law just got even messier. On Monday, the 80-year-old Democratic election observer who vouched for the conduct of the Waukesha County Clerk in the April 5 state Supreme Court race said she was kept in the dark and now isn’t sure what happened.

Last week, observer Ramona Kitzinger told reporters that the numbers Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus reported “jived” with what she witnessed. On Monday, the Waukesha Democratic Party released a statement ascribed to Ms. Kitzinger saying she’s “very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized.”

Maryland: Voter registration reform gains momentum in Maryland | WTOP.com

Efforts by Sen. Ron Young to reform the state’s voter registration system are gaining traction in the Maryland General Assembly. Young, a Frederick Democrat, sponsored two bills this session to help improve voter registration. They have until midnight Monday, when the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn, to pass both chambers.

The first, which has already passed the Senate and on Thursday passed the House of Delegates with an amendment, would allow Maryland election officials to share voter registration with other states. The Senate is scheduled to vote today on an identical bill that originated in the House of Delegates.

Pennsylvania: Lancaster County Pennsylvania Board of Elections Moves to Bar Media from Vote Count | Lancaster Online

Last Wednesday, the Lancaster County Board of Elections approved a policy designed to remove media members from the county’s election center on election night and move them to an adjacent building.

The policy is intended to provide more space for voting materials in the warehouse at Burle Industries business park that serves as the county’s elections center, and provide reporters with an area in which they can work until all results are tabulated. Any change in election procedures is bound to arouse media concerns.

Editorials: To resolve Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election, flip a coin | The Washington Post

Wisconsin’s already-fraught politics got even crazier last week when a bitterly contested, high-turnout state Supreme Court election ended in a near tie. Incumbent Justice David Prosser leads challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by less than 0.5 percent, which means Kloppenburg has the right to a state-funded recount.

We are probably headed toward a long, expensive, law-snarled process — much like Florida in 2000 or the Minnesota Senate election in 2008. This is no way to pick a judge. And any mathematician can tell you a better, fairer and less expensive way: Flip a coin.

Choosing election winners by coin toss when there’s an exact tie is a time-honored tradition in states from Illinois to Alaska; just last Friday, a coin flip settled a school board election in Crawford County, Kan. It’s time to extend that tradition to elections so close that there’s no hope of being sure who “really won.”

The Voting News Daily: Prosser open to Waukesha County recount, Clarification of Election Night Reporting from the City of Brookfield

WI: Prosser open to Waukesha County recount – JSOnline

Justice David Prosser’s campaign said Saturday that it was open to a recount of votes in Waukesha County as the state Supreme Court race remained without a declared winner. “If you need to do a recount in Waukesha (County) and Waukesha (County) alone to satisfy heightened interest, that’s fine,” said Prosser campaign manager Brian Nemoir. “We believe it will only affirm the margin of victory we now enjoy.” In Waukesha County, thousands of votes from the city of Brookfield were not reported by the county clerk on election night but were discovered the day after. Prosser’s margin of victory in Brookfield helped push him ahead of challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Kloppenburg’s campaign manager, Melissa Mulliken, said of the proposed Waukesha County recount, “That is their talk. Once again, we’re evaluating the data, looking at what we’ve got.” Updated but not yet final results compiled by the Journal Sentinel on Friday showed Prosser ahead by 6,744 votes out of nearly 1.5 million cast. If either candidate requests a recount in Waukesha County, his or her campaign would have to pay for it, said a Government Accountability Board spokesman. But if Kloppenburg remains close enough to Prosser in the statewide tally – within half a percentage point – she could ask for a statewide recount and not have to pay the cost. Both campaigns have sought advice from top recount attorneys in the nation as Wisconsin remained poised for the possibility of the first statewide recount in two decades. Full Article

WI: Clarification of Election Night Reporting from the City of Brookfield

The City of Brookfield submitted the election results from the April 5th Election to the County Clerk at 10:05 p.m. on April 5th and called the County to make sure they received the results and they were in the correct format. We were informed that they were received and in the correct format. The same results were sent to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Brookfield Patch and placed on the City of Brookfield’s website. The Elmbrook and Waukesha School Districts were also called with their results. Due to an error at Waukesha County, the votes reported by the City of Brookfield were not included in the totals sent by the County to the Government Accountability Board on April 5. On Thursday April 7, as a result of its canvass of votes, Waukesha County determined that the votes for the City of Brookfield were not included in its April 5 submission. The County has included all votes cast in the City of Brookfield in its final submission of canvassed votes to the State, which submission was made on April 7. In summary, all votes cast in the April 5 election by City of Brookfield voters have been counted and submitted to the State, whether those votes were cast at the polls or by absentee ballot. The original problem was not in the transmission of the votes from the City to the County, but was rather due to a failure by the County in transmitting the vote totals from the County to the State.

Massachusetts: Massachusetts town rebuffs groups on voter ID issue | telegram.com

After two organizations with tea party ties called for voters to voluntarily show identification at the polls during the special primary for the 6th Worcester District House race on Tuesday and the general election on May 10, officials said they will take steps to protect would-be voters.

The district is composed of Southbridge, Charlton, East Brookfield and parts of Spencer and Oxford. Empower Massachusetts and Show ID to Vote launched an “integrity of the vote” campaign last week and said they are working with activists to observe the polls. The election is to resolve a tie in the November election between the incumbent, state Rep. Geraldo Alicea, D-Charlton, and Peter J. Durant, a Republican selectman from Spencer.

Editorials: New Mexico: Partisanship Voting’s Biggest Threat | Albuquerque Journal

Of all the important election-related proposals that were considered in our latest New Mexico legislative session, one stands out. This is the issue of photo voter identification, which generated extreme partisan interest.

Photo voter ID was promoted in the election campaigning by our new Republican governor and also by our new Republican secretary of state, who said in legislative hearings that it was the issue most frequently raised by her supporters. She also claimed that in the Motor Vehicle Department database she had found 117 cases of noncitizens who were registered to vote. But she did not offer evidence showing whether those people had become naturalized and therefore eligible to vote, or whether the names of those in the MVD database just happened to be the same as those of other individuals in the overall voter registration database.

US Virgin Islands: Bryan calls for 48 meetings of election reform committee – US Virgin Islands | Virgin Islands Daily News

A proposed 48-meeting marathon schedule for the V.I. Joint Board of Elections’ committee on election reform would empty the district boards’ coffers in short order at a potential cost of more than $45,000, according to official figures.

The schedule – suggested by St. Croix Board Member Adelbert Bryan – has not been approved by Joint Board Chairman Rupert Ross Jr., who indicated at Wednesday’s St. Croix district board meeting that he was not inclined to authorize all of the dates because of financial restraints.

Mississippi: Mississippi Counties removing voting printers | Clarion Ledger

A growing number of counties are removing the outside printers from touch screen voting machines because of problems that delay voting.

Madison County is now seeking to join 15 other counties that have received permission from the U.S. Department of Justice to detach the plastic modules. The printers are not used by election officials when counting votes but are included as a back-up record of votes cast.

Editorials: South Carolina: Resolve voting machine questions | The Post and Courier

There have been ongoing complaints about supposed problems with the state’s electronic voting machines since last year’s Democratic primary election, and now the local Council of Governments has taken up the drumbeat.

It’s time to resolve the matter. The Legislative Audit Council is the obvious choice to investigate performance and security questions raised about the machines, which are used statewide.

Wisconsin: Prosser open to Waukesha County recount | JSOnline

Justice David Prosser’s campaign said Saturday that it was open to a recount of votes in Waukesha County as the state Supreme Court race remained without a declared winner. “If you need to do a recount in Waukesha (County) and Waukesha (County) alone to satisfy heightened interest, that’s fine,” said Prosser campaign manager Brian Nemoir. “We believe it will only affirm the margin of victory we now enjoy.”

In Waukesha County, thousands of votes from the city of Brookfield were not reported by the county clerk on election night but were discovered the day after. Prosser’s margin of victory in Brookfield helped push him ahead of challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Kloppenburg’s campaign manager, Melissa Mulliken, said of the proposed Waukesha County recount, “That is their talk. Once again, we’re evaluating the data, looking at what we’ve got.”

Wisconsin: Clarification of Election Night Reporting | City of Brookfield Wisconsin

The City of Brookfield submitted the election results from the April 5th Election to the County Clerk at 10:05 p.m. on April 5th and called the County to make sure they received the results and they were in the correct format.  We were informed that they were received and in the correct format.  The same results were sent to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Brookfield Patch and placed on the City of Brookfield’s website.

The  Elmbrook and Waukesha  School Districts were also called with their results. Due to an error at Waukesha County, the votes reported by the City of Brookfield were not included in the totals sent by the County to the Government Accountability Board on April 5.  On Thursday April 7, as a result of its canvass of votes, Waukesha County determined that the votes for the City of Brookfield were not included in its April 5 submission.  The County has included all votes cast in the City of Brookfield in its final submission of canvassed votes to the State, which submission was made on April 7.

National: What Hath HAVA Wrought? Consequences, Intended and Not, of the Post-Bush v. Gore Reforms | Charles Stewart, MIT

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA)1 is the most important direct federal response to the 2000 electoral fiasco in Florida. HAVA had many provisions, some directly inspired by the controversy, others that came along for the ride.

In addition to mandating certain changes in how states conducted federal elections, HAVA appropriated $3b for the improvement of voting systems, most of which went to purchase new voting machines.

Kazakhstan: An Observer’s Reflections on the Kazakhstan Presidential Election | eurasianet.org

According to Kazakhstan’s Central Election Commission (CEC), incumbent Nursultan Nazarbayev received 95.5 percent of the vote in Kazakhstan’s April 3 presidential election, with almost 90 percent of the electorate casting ballots. Most observers and analysts believe Nazarbayev won the election easily, but consider the declared victory margin, and especially the turnout figure, implausibly high.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which had the largest of the international observer missions, cited several improvements in this presidential vote over previous ballots, but cautioned that “needed reforms for holding genuine democratic elections still have to materialize as this election revealed shortcomings similar to those in previous elections.” I observed the electoral process in Astana and Almaty as a member of the Independent Observer Mission, accredited to the Central Election Commission, and exchanged views with election officials, voters, media representatives, foreign diplomats, and the other observer missions. Despite noting significant irregularities, most observers believe Nazarbayev won the election by a large margin, though 95.5 percent is an atypical figure for any free election.

Ghana: Ghana Electoral Commission Says No Electronic Voting in 2012 | GhanaWeb.com

The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced it would not introduce the electronic voting system in the 2012 elections. According to the EC, unlike the ballot paper; the processes of vote counting and tabulation in the e-voting system are often invisible which does not satisfy the curiosity of the voters as to whether their votes have been counted or not.

The electronic voting system is expected to help curb cases of double registration, vote rigging, ballot box snatching as well as end the perpetual claim and counter claim of rigging by the parties who take part in elections in the country. The Danquah Institute (DI), a policy think tank, proposed a switch from the manual to the electronic voting (e-voting) system for the 2012 election because they believe it could be the best solution to end not only systemic electoral fraud, but also post election violence in the future.

India: 11 km trek up to Bengal’s highest polling booth | sify.com

Election officials have to trek 11 km up the Himalayan range over two days to reach West Bengal’s highest polling station — located at Sirikhola, 2,800 metres above sea level. The Sirikhola primary school polling booth, 99 km from this hill resort, has 778 voters mainly from the Gotkha community.

On foot, it is 11 km trek northwest of Darjeeling town. Part of the Darjeeling assembly constituency, it goes to the polls April 18. The area has neither electricity nor piped water, officials said. Elections are the only time the residents of Sirikhola see the official machinery in strength. Apart from electronic voting machines (EVM), the officials will carry torches, battery chargers, portable generators, candles and lanterns.

The Voting News Daily: Unexpected Twist in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, Was the Indiana Secretary of State registered legally when elected?

WI: Wisconsin Election Surprise: David Prosser Gains 7,500 Votes After ‘Human Error’ In Waukesha County (VIDEO) – HuffingtonPost

In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday, the Waukesha County clerk announced that the vote total announced for Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race had been mistaken — and that the corrected numbers changed the outcome of the entire election. There were 3,456 missing votes for Democratic-backed challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg and 11,059 for incumbent GOP-backed Justice David Prosser. Kloppenburg has previously been beating Prosser by just 200 votes of the roughly 1.5 million cast statewide. The new total puts Prosser on a significant path to victory, about 7,500 votes ahead of Kloppenburg. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced the news in a press conference at 5:30 p.m. local time, sounding nervous and, at times, on the verge of tears. She insisted that there was no foul play in the results and blamed the mess on her own “human error.” Nickolaus cited several reasons for the discrepancies between Tuesday night’s unofficial vote totals and the new numbers. In the city of New Berlin, the total for one ward was recorded as 37 votes for Prosser, but it was actually 237, she said. In the town of Lisbon, a “typing error” resulted in both candidates losing votes. The most significant error, however, occurred in the city of Brookfield. “The spreadsheet from Brookfield was imported into a database that was provided by the Government Accountability Board, but it inadvertently was not saved,” Nickolaus said. “As a result, when I ran the report to show the aggregate numbers that were collected from all the municipalities, I assumed that the city of Brookfield was included. It was not. The city of Brookfield cast 14,315 votes on April 5 — 10,859 votes went for Justice David Prosser, 3,456 went for JoAnne Kloppenburg.” “It is important to stress that this is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found,” she added. “This is human error, which I apologize for — which is common in this process.” Full Article

IN: Challenge to Charlie White’s election is ruled valid – The Indianapolis Star

Democrats’ legal challenge to the election of Secretary of State Charlie White is valid, a judge ruled Thursday, and he sent it back to the Indiana Recount Commission to be resolved. Marion Circuit Judge Louis Rosenberg said the commission’s interpretation of the law when it dismissed questions of White’s eligibility would “undermine a key purpose of (the law): preventing fraud.” Bradley Skolnik, the state’s recount director, said it’s too early to say whether the commission will appeal Rosenberg’s ruling. Democrats filed suit in December after the commission voted along party lines to dismiss their allegations that White, who was registered at an old address when he filed his candidacy, was not eligible to run in November’s election. The Democrats said their claim shouldn’t have been dismissed because a state law that requires candidates for secretary of state to be registered to vote means they must be registered legally.

Wisconsin: Wisconsin Election Surprise: David Prosser Gains 7,500 Votes After ‘Human Error’ In Waukesha County | Huffington Post

In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday, the Waukesha County clerk announced that the vote total announced for Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race had been mistaken — and that the corrected numbers changed the outcome of the entire election.

There were 3,456 missing votes for Democratic-backed challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg and 11,059 for incumbent GOP-backed Justice David Prosser. Kloppenburg has previously been beating Prosser by just 200 votes of the roughly 1.5 million cast statewide. The new total puts Prosser on a significant path to victory, about 7,500 votes ahead of Kloppenburg. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced the news in a press conference at 5:30 p.m. local time, sounding nervous and, at times, on the verge of tears.

Wisconsin: Vote-Counting Error In Wisconsin Points to Incompetence, Not Conspiracy – NYTimes.com

When Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, spoke to the press on Thursday after revealing that she had failed to count more than 14,000 ballots in the hotly contested state supreme court election, one might have expected her to offer her resignation. Instead, Ms. Nickolaus blamed “human error” for the problem, which resulted in the failure to tally any votes from the city of Brookfield, which accounts for about 11 percent of her county’s voters. Most of the 14,315 uncounted votes were cast for the more conservative candidate, David Prosser.

As a result, Mr. Prosser — who had been about 200 ballots behind JoAnne Kloppenburg in a contest that seemed bound for a recount — had a net gain of more than 7,500 votes, and now has an overall lead of about that size. Although the election may still go to a recount, it is now highly unlikely that the outcome will change, unless another county discovers a discrepancy of the same magnitude, but in Ms. Kloppenburg’s favor. The human who made the error was none other than Ms. Nickolaus, who said she had failed to save a computer file after entering Brookfield’s results.

Massachusetts: Hampden Massachusetts Board rejects voting machines | masslive.com

The Hampden Board of Selectmen has voted unanimously not to seek funding from Town Meeting to purchase voting machines this year. Selectmen’s Chairman John D. Flynn said a study committee, with Registrar Arthur Booth as a member, recommended against seeking funds from Town Meeting to purchase voting machines this year.

Booth said he did not believe the town would have excess funds to purchase a voting machine in the fiscal 2012 budget. Voting machines cost between $10,000 and $12,000. The town has one voting precinct and would need one or two machines.

Indiana: Challenge to Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White’s election is ruled valid | Indianapolis Star

Democrats’ legal challenge to the election of Secretary of State Charlie White is valid, a judge ruled Thursday, and he sent it back to the Indiana Recount Commission to be resolved. Marion Circuit Judge Louis Rosenberg said the commission’s interpretation of the law when it dismissed questions of White’s eligibility would “undermine a key purpose of (the law): preventing fraud.”

Bradley Skolnik, the state’s recount director, said it’s too early to say whether the commission will appeal Rosenberg’s ruling. Democrats filed suit in December after the commission voted along party lines to dismiss their allegations that White, who was registered at an old address when he filed his candidacy, was not eligible to run in November’s election.

Rhode Island: Election Day bills to be heard in Rhode Island House | WPRI.com

Several of the bills coming up in the General Assembly deal with elections, and we’ve learned several will be heard in the House Judiciary next week. April 13th will be “Elections Day” in the House Judiciary Committee, with an inventory of no less than a dozen bills dealing with how, when and what happens when Rhode Islanders go to the polls in 2012 and beyond.

Tiverton Democrat John Edwards has legislation that would require town financial meetings to comply with all of the state election laws, currently they are exempt.  South Kingston Democrat Don Lally and Pawtucket Democrat Paddy O’Neill both have bills that would close polls in Rhode Island at 8:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m.

New Mexico: A New Routine for Some New Mexico Voters | Albuquerque Journal

Voters may have to buck their routines in the 2012 election after Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday signed election-related measures that could significantly alter Election Day procedures in some counties. Counties will now have the option of consolidating staff — and precincts — into large “voting centers.”

The centers will operate much like early voting sites, allowing people to vote at any of the voting centers regardless of where they live in the county. On the flip side, many voters will no longer have the option of voting at their traditional precincts, usually at a local school, if their county chooses the voting center option in 2012. County clerks pushed for the legislation earlier this year, calling it a more efficient voting system that will save taxpayer dollars.

Ohio: Ohio SoS Husted opposes photo-ID mandate | Columbus Dispatch

Ohio’s elections chief said yesterday that “there is a better way” in reference to a controversial Ohio House bill that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted is proposing election reforms as an alternative to the GOP-backed House Bill 159, which would require that anyone voting at the polls bring a driver’s license, passport or other government-issued identification card that shows the person’s current address and contains a photo.