Probe: Wis. clerk likely violated law in election

MADISON, Wis. — Investigators say a county clerk likely violated the law when she failed to report thousands of votes in this past spring’s state Supreme Court election, but her conduct wasn’t criminal.

The April 5 election pitted Justice David Prosser against challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Initial results showed Kloppenburg had upset Prosser. But Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced two days after the election she had failed to report 14,000 votes, which gave Prosser the victory.

State investigators announced Wednesday they have concluded Nickolaus likely violated a state law requiring clerks to post all returns on Election Night, but the violation wasn’t willful and doesn’t rise to criminal conduct.

The investigation found Nickolaus probably loaded a blank template into a reporting database rather than a template that contained the vote totals.