Waukesha's County Clerk Not Criminally Charged, But...
The embattled Waukesha County Clerk didn't mean to break the law when she held back some election results on the night of the State Supreme Court race, but you can't chalk up her shenanigans that night to a rookie's mistake.
She's a long-time office-holder who has been chastised for running her office arrogantly, so we'll see if either the voters of the County or the clerk herself will make the changes that are long overdue there.
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Take a look at the chain of logic in the GAB order (PDF):
- State statute requires that county clerks report municipal-level results on election night. (In his report, investigator Verhoff writes "The Government Accountability Board takes the position that the law [Wis. Stat 7.60(1)] requires separate reporting of each municipality independently. The GAB's position is that county clerks who receive returns by ward or reporting unit should post the results by ward or reporting unit.")
- Board finds that Nickolaus violated law by failing to report Brookfield results.
- But violation was unintentional because of the spreadsheet error. Therefore, no charges.
See the problem here? Nickolaus explicitly and intentionally refused to report any municipal results, just the county total. What gives?
I'd love to get the benefit of the doubt if I ever broke protocol and massively embarassed my employer.
How pathetic is it that GOPs have now resorted to "well, they weren't charged of anything, so they're vindicated" to excuse the disgraceful acts of Prosser and Nickolaus. Somehow, I'm guessing they didn't feel that way about Bill Clinton in the '90s.
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