State election officials are working with Waukesha County to implement a quicker system of reporting election night results after multiple instances of irregularities, which led to a statewide recount for a Supreme Court race last year. 

Government Accountability Director Kevin Kennedy said in a statement that the GAB is working with Waukesha County officials to allow county clerks to electronically submit unofficial election night totals, rather than having to bring them to the court house. 

According to the statement, municipal clerks would still be required to present the documents by 4 p.m. the day following the election.    

“The GAB has been working with Waukesha County officials for some time now to help them improve their election night reporting processes,” Kennedy said in the statement. “Following media reports of delays in posting election night results for the April 3 Spring Election, our staff reached out to the Waukesha County Clerk’s Office to offer further technical assistance.”

Common Cause in Wisconsin Executive Director Jay Heck said Waukesha’s results from past elections were some of the last to be reported in the state and that the results led to the suspicion of result manipulation. 

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus did not follow the correct procedure for reporting results as laid out by GAB.  Last year in April, the county left out the city of Brookfield leading to initial reports that Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg won a Supreme Court election by a few hundred votes. 

County officials missed counting the 14,000 votes in Brookfield, which, when finally included in the counts, put Supreme Court Justice David Prosser ahead in the state by 7,000 votes. The mistake led to a GAB investigation into the numbers and a statewide recount.

Heck said the election night misreporting in Waukesha has been a problem for more than a year, and the implementation of faster election results will guarantee fewer gray areas surrounding results. 

“This would lead to less suspicion of possible manipulation of election results,” Heck said. “There is no evidence of manipulation in the past election, but the delay raised enough concerns among voters for the May 8 primary election.”

Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the Women’s League of Voters of Wisconsin, said the GAB has gotten involved because of the repeated election problems in Waukesha County. 

Kaminski added that for the April 3 presidential primary, the county had more problems with recording votes leading to the involvement from the GAB because error reporting has become a continued problem. 

Earlier this month, Nickolaus, who oversaw both the primary and the Supreme Court election, gave her election duties to a deputy county clerk to prevent a public call for her resignation, according to a statement from Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas. 

Vrakas said in his statement that he gave Nickolaus two options: resign or designate the deputy clerk to run the upcoming recall election. He said by stepping aside and allowing outside consultants and county staff to work together, Nickolaus has helped restore confidence in the election process.