“In a development that instantly changed the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, revised vote totals for Waukesha County released this evening show that incumbent Justice David Prosser picked up more than 7,500 voters over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.”… AOL News, April 7.
This was a bitter pill and certainly raised eyebrows as to once again the Republicans (or the Democrats) had stolen an election, which certainly would have been a credible suspicion had electronic voting machines been in us.
But such was not the case. The voters had cast their ballots in the same manner offered in Lancaster polling places: by marking paper ballots which are then scanned into a computer with the ballots being secured for future hand counting if circumstances so warranted. Many voters were very disappointed. But few, if any, accusations of foul play were raised.
Unfortunately the former Lancaster board of commissioners, with Molly Henderson voting to the contrary, purchased second hand electronic voting machines being discarded by a city in Oregon. Lancaster voters have an option of filling out a paper ballot or voting via machine. So if a similar controversy were to arise in our community, there would be no satisfactory resolution, no consensus.
Studies have shown electronic voting machines can readily be rigged before, during and after the voting takes place. The county should throw those electronic voting machines on the junk pile. Or restrict them strictly for the use of the physically impaired.
