There is news tonight that the Wisconsin state elections office, known as the Government Accountability Board (GAB), has stated they will not certify the Supreme Court election of April 5th until after they complete a probe into vote-reporting irregularities in Waukesha County.
While the probe is needed, this is not the news we were hoping for.
The GAB is not doing a criminal investigation. This is an administrative review with no teeth. If they find something wrong, there's very little they can do about it. They aren't even going to Waukesha until next week according to local news. That leaves plenty of time for Republican Waukesha officials, including County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, to shred, scrub, and delete any evidence of the mishandling of data.
Now, I happen to think the votes are legitimate, but the way they were tabulated, stored, and reported almost certainly was not. Kathy Nickolaus should be under a criminal investigation right now, and all records and computer equipment relating to the April 5th election should be locked away under armed guard 24/7 until they can be inspected by professional investigators. They should be checking fingerprints, taking statements from the Waukesha County Canvassing Board, and documenting all edits and changes to the electronic files used by Kathy Nickolaus to track and report votes.
I GUARANTEE that by this time next week, the GAB will have completed their review, sent out a press release mildly criticizing Kathy Nickolaus, and declared David Prosser the winner.
Any new recommendations by the GAB for necessary reforms in the Waukesha County Clerk's office will be ignored by Nickolaus, because they can be, and we will be no closer then we are today to being assured that these votes in Waukesha County were not subject to fraud and manipulation.
When we recall Scott Walker next year, we will have no confidence that the votes from Waukesha (or Walkersha, as one commenter called it) will be reported correctly.
I am not blaming the GAB. They are who they are. Among other things, they are responsible for training county clerks and overseeing the administration of state elections. A scandal against Kathy Nickolaus is ultimately a scandal against the GAB. To put it bluntly, where the hell were they when these problems were identified in Waukesha last year?
Let me repeat - I believe the citizens of Brookfield did cast votes and deserve to have their votes counted. What I don't believe is that the GAB has the ability, authority, or the impartiality to identify possible criminal behavior that might have occurred after the votes were cast.
What they can do is go to the courts and request permission to conduct a statewide recount at no charge to either of the candidates. What are they waiting for? There is no way that their once-over in Waukesha next week is going to restore the confidence of Wisconsin citizens in the integrity of the April 5th election results, which they have said is the goal of their probe.