It is peculiar how the smallest, most innocent, observation can become the “straw that breaks the camel’s back.” Barb With was volunteering as an observer at the Waukesha recount when she made a glaring discovery. The poll tape that was being counted and matched for votes cast in the April 5 election for Supreme Court Justice was dated March 30, 2011. When she brought the suspicious date to the attention of election officials, they could not come up with any reason for the mis-dated poll tape.
Weeks later Barb appeared before the Assembly Committee for Election and Campaign Reform. This is a portion of her testimony:
An observer of the Waukesha County recount noticed such a small, innocent piece of paper that was spit out of a voting machine in Pewaukee. It was a poll tape from a voting machine on which is recorded your vote. But what caught her eye was the date at the top of the tape: 03-30-2011 or March 30. That was six days before the Supreme Court election of April 5!
I recall the Facebook messages in the group Election Integrity as she communicated the finding to the group. “Get a picture!” -- and she did.
Probably a test? Ok. You must admit this is well…..suspicious. Her first inquiries about what it was, what it was doing there, and how it came to be in the official recount material, was met with the response, “It was probably a test.” I guess this goes along with the “human error” defense of all that is Waukesha, but look the time stamp on the tape Mary spotted was: 01:40 a.m.!
I know there are dedicated election officials out there, but who would run a test of a voting machine in those wee hours of the morning? Can you imagine the scenario? A person leans over to his/her mate and says: “Honey, I can’t sleep. I’m going down to the Court house and do a quick test of the voting machines.”
No such machine in Pewaukee
The other explanation for the poll tape was something like, “There were no electronic votes cast in Pewaukee,” Response? “Oh. Ok. My mistake. I must not be seeing a poll tape from a voting machine that clearly says, “Pewaukee.” “I must change my medication.” Come on. If there are no such machines in Pewaukee, how did such a poll tape record materialize?
Trying to bury the photos
The people in the Election Integrity group have posted and shared the photos with friends, newspapers, and media and have found something fishy. The links and posts have been deleted from postings or reported to the Facebook administration as being “inappropriate.” Is someone pulling a “Scott Walker stealing all the papers from his College election” action? There seems to be an attempt to keep the photos out of view and the story hushed.
When this story was first shared on Facebook – 3:15 p.m. May 26 it was blocked. The message below appeared on a Bloggers Link:
We are on to something……..????
Another Unanswered Question
To date, no one has come up with a plausible explanation for the poll tape that appeared during the recount process in Waukesha, not even the Government Accounting Board GAB (That is BAG backwards!)
So why hasn’t the GAB demonstrated some concern in the highly irregular March Poll tapes findings?
It turns out that any questions about the integrity of the Wisconsin electronic voting system strikes deep into the heart and history of GAB Director Kevin Kennedy.
Jim Mueller has been looking at the integrity of Wisconsin elections for many years, and had this to say about GAB’s Kevin Kennedy.
“The fear is that these companies throw money around is such a way that we do not know that people who are in positions of trust have been compromised. Since the Accenture deal occurred, I haven’t felt good about Kennedy’s performance”
The Accenture Deal (An Article By Mike McCabe), November 26, 2004
Can you believe it?
They want to privatize our highways, our university, our museums and now our elections. Egad! Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state of Wisconsin’s Elections Board, signed a contract with a multi-national calling itself Accenture (it was part of Enron-tainted Arthur Anderson) to create “a total management package to run our elections.” Hello?
No public hearings were held on the outsourcing of our elections to a company–one that is based in Bermuda to avoid taxes in this country. When I called the Elections Board on Wednesday, I was told that it is, in essence, too late to complain because the contract has been signed. Really? Is it too late to fire Kennedy, appoint a new board, and cancel the contract? I don’t think so.
Call the elections Board and demand that they cancel this contract. Believe it or not Mr. Kennedy, the citizens of Wisconsin are quite capable of managing our own elections.
Kennedy’s Vested Interest
Kennedy has a long history of chummy ties with the Accenture and Electronic Voting Systems. He pitched the system to the legislature. Do you really think he is going to be fair and impartial in answering questions about poll tapes?
The Brad blog has been investigating elections in the country for years, and this is what Brad has to say about the pesky poll tape.
“Worse, if the results printed on the poll tapes are the ultimate proof of the accuracy of results, what happens when — as discovered among poll tapes from the City of Pewaukee in Waukesha County late last week — the “recount” uncovers “Official Results Report” poll tapes dated a full seven days before the actual election was held?’
Prosser was the certified winner of the Supreme Court election and cast a deciding vote on the decision to end collective bargaining rights for workers and families in Wisconsin.
He was certified as the winner before evidence from the recall was published.
1) To date, the GAB has not published the court reporter minutes of the Waukesha recount.
2) The GAB has not published the number of total votes cast in the Supreme Court election.
3) The GAB will not acknowledge whether there is an on-going investigation of the events leading up to the “found vote” by Kathy Nickolaus. They cite the need for confidentiality since Kloppenburg filed a formal complaint. Confidentiality or hiding behind the curtain?
4) The GAB has never said what happened to Kathy Nickolaus’ private computer that held the official vote tabulation for Waukesha County.
5) The GAB has not explained why it gave Kathy Nickolalus “special software” to tabulate the Waukesha County vote.
The information for this post has come through intensive hard work and investigation by the people of the Election Integrity Group, many of whom have been advocating for fair “every vote gets counted ONCE” elections in Wisconsin for years.
Weeks later Barb appeared before the Assembly Committee for Election and Campaign Reform. This is a portion of her testimony:
An observer of the Waukesha County recount noticed such a small, innocent piece of paper that was spit out of a voting machine in Pewaukee. It was a poll tape from a voting machine on which is recorded your vote. But what caught her eye was the date at the top of the tape: 03-30-2011 or March 30. That was six days before the Supreme Court election of April 5!
I recall the Facebook messages in the group Election Integrity as she communicated the finding to the group. “Get a picture!” -- and she did.
Probably a test? Ok. You must admit this is well…..suspicious. Her first inquiries about what it was, what it was doing there, and how it came to be in the official recount material, was met with the response, “It was probably a test.” I guess this goes along with the “human error” defense of all that is Waukesha, but look the time stamp on the tape Mary spotted was: 01:40 a.m.!
I know there are dedicated election officials out there, but who would run a test of a voting machine in those wee hours of the morning? Can you imagine the scenario? A person leans over to his/her mate and says: “Honey, I can’t sleep. I’m going down to the Court house and do a quick test of the voting machines.”
No such machine in Pewaukee
The other explanation for the poll tape was something like, “There were no electronic votes cast in Pewaukee,” Response? “Oh. Ok. My mistake. I must not be seeing a poll tape from a voting machine that clearly says, “Pewaukee.” “I must change my medication.” Come on. If there are no such machines in Pewaukee, how did such a poll tape record materialize?
Trying to bury the photos
The people in the Election Integrity group have posted and shared the photos with friends, newspapers, and media and have found something fishy. The links and posts have been deleted from postings or reported to the Facebook administration as being “inappropriate.” Is someone pulling a “Scott Walker stealing all the papers from his College election” action? There seems to be an attempt to keep the photos out of view and the story hushed.
When this story was first shared on Facebook – 3:15 p.m. May 26 it was blocked. The message below appeared on a Bloggers Link:
We are on to something……..????
Another Unanswered Question
To date, no one has come up with a plausible explanation for the poll tape that appeared during the recount process in Waukesha, not even the Government Accounting Board GAB (That is BAG backwards!)
So why hasn’t the GAB demonstrated some concern in the highly irregular March Poll tapes findings?
It turns out that any questions about the integrity of the Wisconsin electronic voting system strikes deep into the heart and history of GAB Director Kevin Kennedy.
Jim Mueller has been looking at the integrity of Wisconsin elections for many years, and had this to say about GAB’s Kevin Kennedy.
“The fear is that these companies throw money around is such a way that we do not know that people who are in positions of trust have been compromised. Since the Accenture deal occurred, I haven’t felt good about Kennedy’s performance”
The Accenture Deal (An Article By Mike McCabe), November 26, 2004
Can you believe it?
They want to privatize our highways, our university, our museums and now our elections. Egad! Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state of Wisconsin’s Elections Board, signed a contract with a multi-national calling itself Accenture (it was part of Enron-tainted Arthur Anderson) to create “a total management package to run our elections.” Hello?
No public hearings were held on the outsourcing of our elections to a company–one that is based in Bermuda to avoid taxes in this country. When I called the Elections Board on Wednesday, I was told that it is, in essence, too late to complain because the contract has been signed. Really? Is it too late to fire Kennedy, appoint a new board, and cancel the contract? I don’t think so.
Call the elections Board and demand that they cancel this contract. Believe it or not Mr. Kennedy, the citizens of Wisconsin are quite capable of managing our own elections.
Kennedy’s Vested Interest
Kennedy has a long history of chummy ties with the Accenture and Electronic Voting Systems. He pitched the system to the legislature. Do you really think he is going to be fair and impartial in answering questions about poll tapes?
The Brad blog has been investigating elections in the country for years, and this is what Brad has to say about the pesky poll tape.
“Worse, if the results printed on the poll tapes are the ultimate proof of the accuracy of results, what happens when — as discovered among poll tapes from the City of Pewaukee in Waukesha County late last week — the “recount” uncovers “Official Results Report” poll tapes dated a full seven days before the actual election was held?’
Prosser was the certified winner of the Supreme Court election and cast a deciding vote on the decision to end collective bargaining rights for workers and families in Wisconsin.
He was certified as the winner before evidence from the recall was published.
1) To date, the GAB has not published the court reporter minutes of the Waukesha recount.
2) The GAB has not published the number of total votes cast in the Supreme Court election.
3) The GAB will not acknowledge whether there is an on-going investigation of the events leading up to the “found vote” by Kathy Nickolaus. They cite the need for confidentiality since Kloppenburg filed a formal complaint. Confidentiality or hiding behind the curtain?
4) The GAB has never said what happened to Kathy Nickolaus’ private computer that held the official vote tabulation for Waukesha County.
5) The GAB has not explained why it gave Kathy Nickolalus “special software” to tabulate the Waukesha County vote.
The information for this post has come through intensive hard work and investigation by the people of the Election Integrity Group, many of whom have been advocating for fair “every vote gets counted ONCE” elections in Wisconsin for years.