State election officials verify vote count from Brookfield in Supreme Court race

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BROOKFIELD - State election officials say they have verified last Tuesday’s Supreme Court results from Brookfield. That’s where 14,000 votes were not disclosed on Election Night, giving court challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg only a 204-vote statewide lead. But once a canvass added Brookfield’s numbers, incumbent Justice David Prosser jumped out to about a 7,500 vote lead.

Kloppenburg is waiting for the other county canvasses to be finished tomorrow or Friday before deciding on a possible statewide recount. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus – who failed to include Brookfield’s totals on Election Night – rejected calls yesterday to resign. County Democrats said she has ignored pleas to be more open about reporting election results. State officials have said the same thing, and the Republican Nickolaus promised yesterday to be more open. Normally, she only discloses the countywide vote on Election Night, and not the totals for each community as clerks in other counties normally give out.

In a written statement, Nickolaus said she has asked the county auditor and the state Government Accountability Board for help in improving her practices and being more transparent. She said she’ll use the rest of her term to restore the voters’ confidence in her. Nickolaus has been Waukesha County’s clerk for nine years. Her current term ends in 2012.

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