A Smelly Rat In Waukesha County

Waukesha County, Wisconsin sits astride their 8^th Senate District, the only district that failed to elect, as predicted in the polls, a Democrat, Sandy Pasch, over the Republican incumbent whose seat was challenged in yesterday’s recall election. Six senate seats were up for a vote, with three of them looking good for Democrats.

Sandy Pasch, however will not be going to Madison to replace Alberta Darling very probably because a big smelly rat exists in Waukesha county government. A rat in the person of the county elections clerk. An elections clerk that makes Florida’s former Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, look like a paragon of vote integrity.

It was in Waukesha County, it may be recalled, that suddenly “found” 14,000 votes for State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, a Republican, last April.

It was also Waukesha County that reported a 97% voter turnout in the 2004 presidential election.

It was also Waukesha County that has 99.5% of its eligible voters actually registered to vote.

It was also Waukesha County that ended, in that county anyway, a statewide effort to conduct exit polls last night.

But with all of that, Democrats in Waukesha County are not going to go to the mat over this. Here is what Waukesha County Democratic Chair Mike Tate is quoted as saying:

"On Tuesday night, Wisconsin spoke loud and clear with the recall of two entrenched Republicans. This is an accomplishment of historic proportions that I do not wish to be overshadowed by statements regarding results in the 8th Senate District.”

And that, friends and neighbors, is why Waukesha County has had these voting irregularities for what is now 7 years. And that is why they will into the future.