Three bags of ballots from a precinct in Oconomowoc (oh-CON-eh-meh-walk) have been identified as having no serial number on their bag labels.
There are three places where the numbers should be matched. Each bag is sealed with a tamper-evident tag or seal. That tag has a serial number on it. Elections officials are supposed to write that serial number on the bag label when they seal it, sign the bag, and also log the serial number on the official election inspection report.
Good photo of a similar bag by jsamuel in the comments here.
Livestream of the Waukesha County recount here.
Waukesha County officials discovered that all three ballot bags from a precinct consisting of wards 4, 5, 6, 14 and 22 in Oconomowoc had nothing written on the bag labels. The bag seal (or tag) serial numbers match the inspection report, and the bag is signed by two people who also signed the inspection report.
The municipal clerk from that area (not the County Clerk) was asked if she had an explanation. She said she had none.
The head of the canvass board also noted "airholes" and a 3/4 inch tear on the second of the three unlabelled bags.
One of the official observers made some comments on the record expressing concern but did not file a formal complaint to have the ballots thrown out. I'm not sure if the observer is from the Kloppenburg campaign, but he made the obvious observation that without the serial number written on the bag, there is no real way to verify that the ballots were properly handled.
During the 20-minute break immediately before this discovery, I could hear parts of a conversation from the livestream (off-camera) between two women who discussed at length the obvious lack of accountability of local clerks and elections officials in Waukesha County. They were very critical of County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, who is ultimately responsible for overseeing the administration of the elections in the county.
This makes 8 bags of ballots so far in Waukesha County with serious "chain of custody" breaches.
It's easy to dismiss these by saying it will never add up to 14,000 votes, the number of votes from Brookfiled that Nickolaus reported 2 days late.
What if Nickolaus is both sloppy and dishonest? What if she left her office on the night of April 5th thinking like the rest of the world that Prosser had lost by 200 Votes? What if someone rigged enough ballots to make up the 200-vote difference but found out later the vote-rigging wasn't needed because of the Brookfield miracle?
I'm just asking.
