Madison -- The state's top elections official said Friday he is sending state staff to examine results in Waukesha County, where thousands of untallied votes were revealed Thursday affecting the tight Supreme Court race.
"Because of the attention on vote totals from Brookfield, I am dispatching G.A.B. staff to Waukesha County today to review the business processes and verify the reported results in the election for Supreme Court justice," Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Government Accountability Board, said in a statement. "I have been in close contact with Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus since her news conference on Thursday, and have directed her to make the official returns from the polling places available for public inspection. These documents are public records. I believe she is now taking steps to ensure transparency and public confidence in the official results."
On Thursday, Nickolaus said that she failed to save on her computer and then report 14,315 votes in the City of Brookfield, omitting them entirely in an unofficial total she released after Tuesday’s election. With other smaller errors in Waukesha County, that meant incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser gained 7,582 votes over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, leaving the sitting justice significantly ahead for now amid ongoing official counting.
At a later news conference, Kennedy said that Kloppenburg's campaign would be allowed to look at the figures used to arrive at the official county totals.
Kennedy said that state officials would not be checking the ballots from Brookfield or the rest of the county before any possible recount. To do that would require the Accountability Board to go to court and Kennedy said that he didn't believe that was warranted as of now.
The ballots remain in the custody of Nickolaus in bags that were closed with numbered seals on election night by poll workers, Kennedy said.
Kennedy said that he believed Nickolaus, who discovered her error on Wednesday, should have informed him sooner than she did on Thursday shortly before announcing the mistake at a press conference.
"I would expect as soon as you know you've made a mistake you would disclose it," Kennedy said.