Letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

Letter

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) last night sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a federal investigation into the questionable handling of vote records in Waukesha County.

Baldwin wrote Holder, "Following this week's election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, numerous constituents have contacted me expressing serious doubt that this election was a free and fair one. They fear, as I do, that political interests are manipulating the results."
To assure public confidence in our democratic election process and guarantee that votes are fairly counted and reported, Baldwin asked Holder to assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section, which oversees the federal prosecution of election crimes, to investigate the questionable handling of vote records in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

A copy of the letter is shown below:

Dear Attorney General,

For our democracy to endure, we, the people, must have faith in its laws and system of justice, including faith that our elections for public office are fair and free from any manipulation and tampering. Following this week's election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, numerous constituents have contacted me expressing serious doubt that this election was a fair or free one. They fear, as I do, that political interests and manipulating the results.

The following information was reported by the Associated Press, with additional reporting by the Wisconsin State Journal Staff, on Friday, April 8:

* On Wednesday morning, April 6th, with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, JoAnne Kloppenburg appeared to beat incumbent David Prosser for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a slim margin out of the 1.5 million votes cast.

* Late Thursday afternoon, April 7th, the Waukesha County clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, 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." She reported this as a "human error."

* These new votes would give Prosser a 7,500 vote lead in the race-- almost exactly the number needed to deny an automatic, government-funded recount.

* Nickolaus said she discovered the error on Wednesday, April 6. She said that she entered the numbers into the system and failed to hit "save". She further explained that when she came in to upload the information for the state-wide canvass, she noticed all the fields and columns for the city of Brookfield were blank.

* The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported lthat last year, Waukesha County officials raised objections to Nickolaus' practice of storing election data on the computers in her office rather than on the county's computer network. Nickolaus said that this practice was aimed at keeping the data more secure. However, this practice prevented the county's information technology specialists from verifying that the system was fail-safe, the county's director of administration said at the time.

* The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported that Nickolaus, who worked for seven years as a data analyst and computer specialist for the Wisconsin Assembly Republican Caucus, headed up an effort to develop a computer program that averaged the performance of Republicans in statewide races by ward. During this time, David Prosser served as Assembly Speaker, meaning that he was essentially Nickolaus' boss.

* In 2001, Nickolaus was granted immunity to testify about her role as a computer analyst for the Wisconsin Assembly Republican Caucus, then under investigation for using state resources to fund secretly run campaigns.

I share the concerns of my constituents that these reports raise serious doubts as to the integrity of the electoral process in Waukesha County, and by extension, our entire state.

To ensure that the April 5th election for Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice is free, fair and transparent, and to uphold faith in our democracy for ourselves and future generations, I ask for your immediate assistance in investigating these election inconsistencies in Wisconsin.

Specifically, I urge you to immediately assign the Justice Department Public Integrity Section, which overseas the federal prosecution of election crimes, to investigate the questionable handling of vote records in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

We, the people, must be sure that our votes are fairly counted and reported, and our democracy remains intact and untainted.

Sincerely,
Tammy Baldwin
Member of Congress

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