Stinky Cheese Florida Style, Behind the Great Cheese Wall of Elections

By Randell A. Monaco
April 15, 2011


More than a week after a state wide election for a 10 year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court the state's highest court, Waukesha County takes a page out of the Bush Election Playbook and turns in 14,000 votes changing an early count which suggested incumbent Justice David T. Prosser, Jr. had lost.

The newest hanging chad of election culprits is reported to be a Waukesha County Clerk named Kathy Nickolaus. According to New York Times reporter Monica Davey, Kathy Nickolaus said that she had forgot to hit "save" on her computer. There is no mention of how it was that Nickolaus discovered her neglect more than a week after the election or why election results would be on "her" computer if that is in fact, where they were.

The discovery has decisively turned the election against the challenging candidate, JoAnne Kloppenburg who must decide before Wednesday whether to request a recall or allow the results to be certified.

Just how aggressively the state's Government Accountability Board will investigate this profound discovery under the skeptical scrutiny of former republican legislative colleague and now embattled governor Scott Walker, remains to be seen.

Since currently challenged new collective bargaining legislation has yet to make its way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Justice Prosser's presence on the bench may become an important factor in the court's conservative majority when it does.

Wisconsin voters who have been bombarded with economic claims that the sky is falling might want to save a few steps and ask that a federal investigation step in which might also save the state a few bucks and avoid a recount.

Possibly, Ms. Nickolaus might voluntarily submit to a polygraph examination which might save a recount of the election. She might also consider turning her computer over to federal law enforcement assuming that the state has yet to seizes and conduct a forensic examination. On that note, it wouldn't be a bad idea for the state to turn over the machine to the FBI for a computer forensics examination just to satisfy voters and corroborate Ms. Nickolaus absentmindedness.

Turning this investigation over to federal law enforcement at the earliest moment would serve a dual purpose, paramount to voters and Governor Walker alike, which is to eliminate the stinky cheese odor of impropriety and restore the integrity of the sovereignty and democracy in Wisconsin. After all, if the hanging chad has reappeared why would anyone want to accept the results of another state investigation.