It looks like someone is getting a
much-needed time-out:
It’s two strikes and out for Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, whose latest Election Day pickle led County Executive Dan Vrakas to relieve her of her duties for the historic recall elections in May and June.
According to a statement released Thursday from the County Executive’s Office, Vrakas posed an ultimatum to Nickolaus in an effort to restore confidence in the upcoming election: Either resign as clerk or she designate her Election Day duties to the deputy clerk.
Nickolaus chose the latter.
You of course remember Nickolaus as the notorious clerk who managed to flip the results of last year's ultra-tight state supreme court race between JoAnne Kloppenburg and David Prosser two days
after the election, because she forgot to report results from an entire town. The election this past Tuesday
was no better, with computer programs failing, results getting manually tabulated via
long streams of paper pinned up to the walls, and final numbers not getting released until after two in the morning.
The state Democratic Party is still rightly skeptical as to whether this move will restore integrity to elections in Waukesha—after all, a Nickolaus deputy will be taking over the reins, and who knows whether her demotion is permanent or temporary. But it's a long-overdue step in the right direction—and with any luck, Nickolaus will lose reelection this fall.
For more discussion, see Giles Goat Boy's post.