Strange Numbers from Waukesha and Milwaukee Counties (from Dkos)

[democraticinsurgent]

FROM DKOS Member jsamuel:

In this diary, I take a look at some of the strange numbers in regards to Supreme Court ONLY ballots being cast in counties during the April 5th election. Some interesting differences pop out.

Of particular interest is the high number of Supreme Court ONLY ballots in Waukesha County (14.4% of all ballots). This does not compare well with other counties which all have numbers far below this total.

However, there is some serious strangeness when Milwaukee County is looked at. The county as a whole actually had more votes for the County Executive race than it did for the Supreme Court race. This is the exact opposite of every other county, some of which also had County Executive races. Further creating confusion, the City of Milwaukee had 22,000 more votes for Supreme Court than for County Executive. This means that of the rest of Milwaukee County (less than half of the total votes) had at least 22,000 ballots that voted for County Executive but NOT for the Supreme Court race.

The numbers for each County and the City of Milwaukee are below.

Waukesha
18,000/125,000 = 14.4%

Milwaukee County
-1,500/227,500 = -0.7%

Milwaukee City
22,000/117,000 = 18.8%

Dane
10,000/182,000 = 5.5%

Brown
5,500/60,500 = 9.1%

Marathon
2,700/32,000 = 8.5%

Outagamie
1,500/43,500 = 3.4%

Racine
4,000/51,000 = 7.8%

Sheboygan
800/30,900 = 2.6%

Winnebago
4,700/39,500 = 11.9%

Counties with No Competitive Race:
Crawford, Dodge, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Jackson, Jefferson, Kenosha, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Ozaukee, Portage, Rock, Walworth, Washington

This includes all counties with at least 10,000 votes for either candidate.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/11/965916/-Strange-Numbers-from-Waukesha-and-Milwaukee-Counties-on-Supreme-Court-Only-Ballots

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[iwishiwas]

2. But remember, Milwaukee county is Walkers old haunting grounds

for 8 years. I can see people being more interested in that vote than for the SC vote.

[democraticinsurgent]

3. OK, but

...why the differences between Milwaukee City and the rest of the county? They're completely divergent.

[iwishiwas]

4. I wondered about that myself. I have no idea.

[PeaceNikki]

7. In addition, his opponent is (and was) the mayor of Milwaukee.

[pacalo]

5. There's an interesting update at the end of the diary about the Democratic observer who was

present at Nickolaus' press conference which really deserves its own thread. It seems she feels her appearance & brief statement about the numbers "jiving" have led people to believe she knew more than she actually did.

Here's where she explains why she spoke out:

Statement & Account of Ramona Kitzinger, Waukesha Board of Canvassers member since 2004

(...)The reason I offer this explanation is that, with the enormous amount of attention this has received over the weekend, many people are offering my statements at the press conference that the “numbers jibed” as validation they are correct and I can vouch for their accuracy. As I told Kathy when I was called into the room – I am 80 years old and I don’t understand anything about computers. I don’t know where the numbers Kathy was showing me ultimately came from, but they seemed to add up. I am still very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized before I was informed of the Brookfield error and it wasn’t even until the press conference was happening that I learned it was this enormous mistake that could swing the whole election. I was never shown anything that would verify Kathy’s statement about the missing vote, and with how events unfolded and people citing me as an authority on this now, I feel like I must speak up.



http://www.orchidforchange.com/parties/waukeshadems.com/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/1343504/pid/462551

[Maraya1969]

6. I think your post should be an OP.

[PeaceNikki]

8. Possible explanation: they were ALL non-partisan races and we were beat to DEATH with ads on the SC

race. There was no mistake about which party in that race was which. Many people will opt out of casting a vote if they don't know who the "bad guy" is. I know I do.

[gkhouston]

9. Using that logic, there should have been more votes in the SC race in Milwaukee county. n/t

[PeaceNikki]

10. Not with the County Exec and Board races.

Those were also very heavily advertised.

[Snoutport]

11. people seemed riled up to vote....hard to imagine they didn't fill their ballots

in such large numbers.

[PeaceNikki]

12. Nah, not for school board races, community treasurers and the like.

I opted out of some local races.

They were riled up to either vote against Walker or for Walker via the SC race. They don't give a shit who is on the school board or their city seats.

[Dawson Leery]

13. What party controls the municipal governments of suburban Milwaukee County?

Strange how Milwalkee County moved towards the political "right" in this election is questionable.