Just Trust Her: Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus - (R)

[KeepItReal]

WI's Waukesha County Clerk to Keep Elections Results on Her Personal Computer

Waukesha - Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' decision to go it alone in how she collects and maintains election results has some county officials raising a red flag about the integrity of the system.

Nickolaus said she decided to take the election data collection and storage system off the county's computer network - and keep it on stand-alone personal computers accessible only in her office - for security reasons. "What it gave me was good security of the elections from start to finish, without the ability of someone unauthorized to be involved," she said.

Nonetheless, Director of Administration Norman A. Cummings said because Nickolaus has kept them out of the loop, the county's information technology specialists have not been able to verify Nickolaus' claim that the system is secure from failure.

"How does anybody else in the county know, except for her verbal word, that there are backups, and that the software she has out there is performing as it should?" he said. "There's no way I can assure that the election system is going to be fine for the next presidential election."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7988

HERES MORE:

An audit of Nickolaus' handling of the 2010 election found that she needed to take steps to improve security and backup procedures, like stop sharing passwords. The audit was requested after the county's director of administration said Nickolaus had been uncooperative with attempts to have county experts review her systems and confirm backups were in place.

Nickolaus was given immunity from prosecution in a 2002 criminal investigation into illegal activity by members of the assembly Republican Caucus. She worked for 13 years as a data analyst and computer specialist for the caucus.

She resigned from her state job in 2002 just before launching her county clerk campaign.

The corruption probe took down then-Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, a Republican; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison; Sen. Brian Burke, D-Milwaukee, co-chairman of the powerful Joint Finance Committee; Assembly Majority Leader Steve Foti, R-Oconomowoc; and Rep. Bonnie Ladwig, R-Racine. They all reached plea deals.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42483089/ns/us_news/

(edited to add more content on her past)

[somone]

1. WTF

[Parker CA]

3. Major WTF.

[KeepItReal]

4. Yeah, you're reading it right

WTF, indeed.

[aquart]

2. She's a programmer. Isn't that like handing a magician a deck of cards?

[bluestate10]

14. She had damned better be the best programmer in the world. She has

messed up big-time.

[Buns_of_Fire]

33. She THINKS she's a programmer.

She's someone with a little knowledge, and a big agenda. I wouldn't waste a 5081 card on her.

[michaz]

5. This should be illegal. n/t

[rufus dog]

6. Is it only me

Or is there a backwards B missing from her cheek?

[blondeatlast]

15. Baaad... But damn, uncanny resemblance. nt

[MadMaddie]

7. That breaks all rules of security

This is criminal activity. I call bullshit.. They need to have a revote...no way this is legitimate now.

[louslobbs]

30. Agreed, she has proven herself to have no integrity, shes a cheat, shes a snitch to save her own ass

and she has a criminal mind and way of being. I agree, re-vote, and investigate this Republicon vote rigger, give her due process and once she is found guilty, send her to prison to think about all of her past crimes that she got away with.
Lou

[Warren DeMontague]

8. something smells fishy

[fascisthunter]

9. you piece of shit traitor to democracy

[Bozita]

10. Unfuckingbelievable. Simply and totally unfuckingbelievable.

This can't stand.

Or can it?

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. More than likely WILL. n/t

[michaz]

11. Now that is a bumper sticker. n/t

[Zorra]

12. She was granted immunity by authorities in 2001:

Nickolaus has had a long career in Republican politics.

For 13 years, she worked as a staffer for the Assembly Republican caucus, one of four GOP and Democratic legislative groups that were shut down following a criminal investigation into state staffers doing campaign work on state time.

The investigation eventually led to the resignations and criminal convictions of leaders in the Senate and Assembly for directing caucus and staff employees to engage in illegal political activity during their state employment.

Nickolaus, who earned $54,000 a year as a data analyst and computer specialist for Assembly Republicans, was granted immunity in 2001 by authorities conducting the investigation.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119410124.html

Immunity in this context generally means immunity from prosecution, doesn't it?
:shrug:

[in_cog_ni_to]

26. Yup...but another article said it was in 2002. You cannot tell me that the ONLY

County where votes were lost and found, just happened to be in THIS WOMAN'S COUNTY OFFICE and fraud wasn't committed. BULLSHIT. Now I KNOW she committed fraud and the Democrats had better do something about it. Investigate her ass NOW. Confiscate ALL voting machines/computers and hire the best damn computer people you can find to uncover what she did.

[bluestate10]

13. She is going to have a prison girlfriend, maybe several. nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. Nope. She'll be Wisconsin's Katherine Harris.

...and get away with her crime.

[Wabbajack_]

20. Prison rape isn't something to be made light of

[Blue Meany]

16. I trust that John Fund will be all over this...

after all, he already declared there was voter fraud without a shred of evidence when Prosser was losing. Now that a partisan Republican has found 7,000 votes I'm sure he will be very suspicious.

[benld74]

17. 6-2 odds she runs for Congress in less than 5 years,,,,

[highplainsdem]

18. K&R

[Bluebear]

21. The new Katherine Harris.

[in_cog_ni_to]

22. A Serial election stealer....and a Repuke. Why the hell was she given immunity from

prosecution in 2002? Did she work for THE JUDGE PROSSER at that time???

These people make me ill. It just never stops. They are corrupt to the core.

[FeelingBlue]

24. I wonder if she feels that she is doing something morally right

since she is a real pro-life person. I wonder if she justifies fraud by imagining that she is somehow saving Walker's behind, and therefore, also, preparing the way for Walker's agenda to flourish. I don't know, but in the same way that some pro-life people have been violent offenders, murderers, I wonder if she has that same psychological thing going. In another post she is described as extremely prolife, bringing that issue into unrelated conversations. This may be something she feels almost compelled to do in order to usher in the new order with Walker in charge. Just wondering.

[louslobbs]

31. In her warped mind, in which there is no real morality, you are probably right she "thinks" she is

doing something moral, when she is completely without morals. She's a lying, cheating, hypocrite criminal, no matter how many "babies" she claims to want to save from people who choose differently than her in life. She is a pathological psycho and a rabid right wing sociopath.
Lou

[midnight]

25. I didn't realize she was tied into that scandle... They

should of taken her with the whole mess.... A computer specialist for the republican gang....

[in_cog_ni_to]

27. Indeed. She's been "working her magic" in G-d only knows how many elections!

I cannot believe she was still allowed to run for County Clerk after that scandal! It's un-freakin'-believable!

[Dawson Leery]

28. Kathy Nickolaus: the Katherine Harris of Waukesha County!

[louslobbs]

32. Yep, the apples don't fall far from the extreme rabid right Republicon nut Tree.

[Rex]

29. Oh haha ha ha haha ha ha!!!

TRUST ME. *wink*

[xchrom]

34. Recommend