Madison, Wisconson

[oladub]

Kloppenburg, the Democrats' choice for State Supreme Court. looks like she will have about one or two hundred more votes than the incumbent conservative Prosser in Wisconsin out of 1.6M votes cast. This is huge. Under normal circumstances, 10 year incumbents breeze through reelections particularly if their rival has never been a judge. However, Walker's tactics [[Custer has competition) managed to alienate working people and unite them against him to the point that Walker's opponents managed to somehow link Prosser to Walker's agenda. This reminds me of when Bush pushed through his mostly for the rich tax cuts. He arrogantly claimed he had a lot of political capital he could use up. He was wrong. Walker is not a fast learner.

The press probably won't cover the other part of the story. School millage elections went down in flames in Wisconsin. I wonder if all the coverage of average Milwaukee teachers earning $100,000 in pay and benefits and requesting free Viagra in their health plan didn't sit right with voters living on $40,000 a year. It could be that the perceived extravagances of both Walker and public unions will be punished for awhile.

[Mikeg]

Kloppenburg, the Democrats' choice for State Supreme Court. looks like she will have about one or two hundred more votes than the incumbent conservative Prosser in Wisconsin out of 1.6M votes cast. This is huge. .....

Not so huge after all.

Kloppenburg foolishly declared victory on the basis of an Associated Press tally. Watch and listen to her victory declaration and the answer she gives when a member of the press asks her "How do you feel comfortable declaring victory when the margin is so thin...?" She makes Michele Bachmann sound like a brain surgeon.

Well, it turns out the Waukesha County county clerk failed to include the results from Brookfield, WI when she transmitted her county's numbers to the AP. Looks like Prosser will win by a 7,500 vote margin.

[old guy]

This came to my attention this morning via e-mail. I'm not sure there was anything illegal done in this election for state supreme court justice, but it has raised more than a few eyebrows that the entire city of Brookfield was left out of the final tally.

Also, I'm a mac user, so I can't substantiate the exact technology here. Maybe one of you PC geeks out there would have some input.


This was an interesting blog on the Waukesha County Clerk who miraculously found missing votes for the Wisconsin state supreme court race?

Thu Apr 07, 2011 at 11:41 PM EDT
Kathy Nickolaus in Waukesha forgot to save? Really?
It was with great interest that I watched the press conference of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus. You see, my "day job" is in the field of information technology, and I was tuned in to her every word regarding her use of Microsoft Access to tabulate the county wide vote totals.
So I decided to make a little voting database in Microsoft Access 2010 and 2007, to test her story.
Results after the jump...
Nickolaus says repeatedly that she imported the data into Access, but through a process of "human error", she "forgot to save". Then come the tears, repeatedly, throughout her presser.
Here's the problem. Microsoft Access [[any version) doesn't ask you to save. When you enter data into a table, it automatically updates the underlying database. If you close the database accidentally, the data you entered [[or imported, in the case of Nickolaus) remains. If you stop to take a phone call from your buddy the governor [[for example), your data will still automatically save.
For further proof, I asked my 8 year old daughter to try to enter data in my little Access voting system mock up, and not save it. She couldn't do it. She tried all sorts of things, and the votes still saved.
I entered 10,000 votes for Prosser, and closed the database. No save prompt appeared. I came back in, and there were the 10,000 votes! Thanks Bill Gates! I entered 20,000 votes for Prosser, and did a hard shutdown of my computer. When I booted back up and reopened the file, the 20,000 votes were there! Thanks again Bill Gates!
Bottom line: Nickolaus is clearly lying. Not only did she insist on having her own private system based on some of the most unsecure, pedestrian computing technology available [[Seriously? Access and Excel controlling such an important part of our democracy?), but she apparently assumes that nobody else has ever used Microsoft Access.
On an almost daily basis, I recommend to my business users to avoid Microsoft Access, due to the almost complete lack of security and auditing within the tool. It's good for keeping track of your grocery list, perhaps. But not an election.
It's difficult to imagine being any worse at stealing an election and lying about it. Honestly.
Update: Thanks for the rec list. It's been years since my last rec list diary. I live in Wisconsin and, as my neighbors can undoubtedly attest from my endless loud ranting, I'm not pleased this evening. It feels good to contribute something to the research.
Update 2: It was pointed out in the comments and some messages that it is possible to add validation to data submission in Access, using Visual Basic or other macros. In other words, it's possible to add a button to "save" the data. This is true, if one was concerned enough about security and accuracy to add validation that doesn't exist natively [[Does Nickolaus strike you as someone overly concerned with extra security and accuracy?). However, during the press conference, Nickolaus speculates she may have inadvertently turned the macros off. If this were the case, it would have allowed the automatic saving, not the other way around. Bottom line again: Her story doesn't add up, and it doesn't pass the IT smell test.

[old guy]

Oh, one more tidbit. Americans For Prosperity is hosting a Tea Party, Tax Day rally at the capitol Saturday, April 15, featuring Sarah Palin. This should be interesting.

[old guy]

Not to beat a dead horse, but......

State to get $600 million infusion
Tax revenue over 3 fiscal years revised
Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel
May 11, 2011 |[[501) COMMENTS


Madison — The state said Wednesday that it is expected to receive roughly $200 million more annually in tax money over three fiscal years - enough to cover some but not all of a massive budget shortfall.

The revised tax revenue estimates by the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office said the state would receive an extra $636 million through June 2013, a period covering the current state fiscal year ending this summer and the following two years. The projections by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau showed an increase in expected income tax payments that outweighed weakness in both corporate and sales tax revenues.

Gov. Scott Walker said in a Capitol news conference he wants to put the money toward paying off debt and perhaps restoring some cuts that he proposed when the state's finances looked worse. Walker is proposing cutting school aid by $841 million over two years, but he expressed skepticism at the idea of using the new money to make the school cuts smaller.

He said he also wants to continue with plans to make public employees pay more for health care and their pensions and eliminate much of their ability to collectively bargain.



I thought it was funny on the news last night when a reporter asked Gov. Walker if he was trying to take credit for money that was found, that was actually created during the last administration. He said he had to give the Democrats credit, at least the ones that agreed with his policy. And yes, he is trying to take credit for the extra cash. Sorry, but this guy is a maggot.

[oladub]

Good, that will reduce the two year projected budget deficit from $3.6B to about $3B. There are good reasons to not like Walker; his autocratic vendetta ridden approach come to mind. If only Democrats would come up with an acceptable plan to bridge the remaining $3B gap.

[old guy]

Good, that will reduce the two year projected budget deficit from $3.6B to about $3B. There are good reasons to not like Walker; his autocratic vendetta ridden approach come to mind. If only Democrats would come up with an acceptable plan to bridge the remaining $3B gap.

I agree, pay it down.

[ghettopalmetto]

Good, that will reduce the two year projected budget deficit from $3.6B to about $3B. There are good reasons to not like Walker; his autocratic vendetta ridden approach come to mind. If only Democrats would come up with an acceptable plan to bridge the remaining $3B gap.

Renege on the corporate tax cuts that Walker passed in January? There's a start....

[old guy]

On a lighter note. Last week was the 20 year anniversary of the infamous Madison Butter Fire. A cold food storage warehouse caught fire and burned for 2 - 3 days. I remember seeing pictures of firemen dragging hoses through waist deep melted butter before the walls blew out. There were canned hams exploding and some shooting out of the building like rockets. One of the firemen said it's been 20 years and he still can't stand to smell hot dogs cooking on a grill.

[Jimaz]

Thom Hartmann: Latest on the war on democracy