Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has done his level best to restrict minority voters’ access to the polls. By reducing polling hours, restricting early voting, creating one of the most complex voter ID laws in the country, and pushing through partisan redistricting, Walker tried to increase Republican control of the state.
Officials in one county have helped him out by repeatedly messing up elections. Waukesha County is known as “Lake Country.” It has a nice low unemployment rate (3.5 percent). Its population is 93.3 percent white.
It is also the home of remarkably inept and potentially corrupt officials. In 2011 there was a close race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Initially, election results were reported to be in favor of the progressive challenger for the seat, but the next morning, the Waukesha county clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, made a dramatic announcement. She had “forgotten” to count the votes in one city. The new count gave the election to the conservative incumbent.
The incumbent, David Prosser, had formerly been Nickolaus’ boss.
There were several other issues with the clerk, including poor election security and a refusal to update to modern polling equipment.
Nickolaus was finally pushed out of office in 2012 because of her poor performance.
But the current Waukesha county clerk is hardly an improvement.
An article on RawStory reveals that county clerk Kathleen Novack testified in federal court in favor of voter restriction laws that were passed by Gov. Walker in the past five years. She stated that the reduction in early voting and stricter voter ID laws had caused no problems at all for the white folks of her county.
Novack went on to say that she thought the state should end weekend voting because it gave “unfair access” to people in urban areas. People who are mostly non-white. Many of whom tend to vote Democrat.
Ignoring the fact that many urban voters work odd hours or have multiple jobs, Novack said:
“If there’s an office open 30 days versus an office that’s only open 10 work days, there are obviously voters that have a lot more access than someone else … There has to come a point where it’s just giving over-access … to particular parts of the state.”
Novack said that she thought that the long lines that were being reported at urban polling places was actually a sign that there was plenty of access.
“Apparently access is an easy thing or they wouldn’t have long lines.”
I honestly have no idea what she could possibly mean by this, do you?
Featured image by Ian McWilliams via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons License 2.0
