By Brad Friedman on 6/1/2011, 6:31pm PT  

On my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show today (heard on Wednesdays at 3:30pm PT in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego & around the world on KPFK.org) I spoke live with WI Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. It was her first interview since conceding the highly-contentious and incredibly close WI Supreme Court election and "recount" yesterday to incumbent Justice David Prosser.

Given the state media's shamefully bad coverage of the disastrous "recount", the interview may well be the only one, as short as it was, in which she was able to address accountability for the "cascade of widespread irregularities", as she described them during her concession speech, which plagued the state's certified results.

"How do you know," I asked her at one point during our conversation, "that, given the wild, widespread irregularities --- these wide open ballot bags, tamper-evident seals that were broken, serial numbers that were missing, scratched out, changed --- how do you know that those ballots that were counted during the recount process were actually the ballots that were cast by the voters on Election Day?"

Her disturbing but unavoidable answer: "At this point, we don't know. All we have to go on is the hand count, and the extent to which they're consistent with the tapes in the [voting] machines."

You can listen to my follow up, and much more of what she had to say about the election, the "recount", her still-pending request for an independent investigation of controversial Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, and the failure of the state's top election authority, the Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.), to assure that statutory security processes, meant to deter both malfeasance and malfunction, were actually followed...

Download MP3, or listen online below [appx 28 mins]...

* * *

For much more specific information on what we discussed during the interview, including photographs of "wide open" ballot bags, missing seals and serial numbers, other blatant chain of custody violations discovered during the course of the "recount" across the state, and particularly in Waukesha County, please see some of The BRAD BLOG's extensively detailed most-recently related coverage as linked below...

5/3/11: "WI's Supreme Court Election 'Recount' is a Mess"
5/5/11: "EXCLUSIVE: CITY OF BROOKFIELD BALLOT BAGS FOUND 'WIDE OPEN' IN WAUKESHA COUNTY, WI"
5/11/11: "Many Problems Observed in Milwaukee 'Recount' of WI Supreme Court Election - But No Media Reports!"
5/16/11: "Kloppenburg Responds to Shameful 'Journal Sentinel' Editorial Mocking Need for WI 'Recount'"
5/20/11: "Tale of the Tapes: Wisconsin's 'Dog-and-Pony Show' Faith-Based Supreme Court Election 'Recount'"
5/30/11: "EXCLUSIVE: WI State Election Board Failed to Review Minutes from Waukesha County 'Recount' Before Certifying Supreme Court Election Results"
5/30/11: "Kloppenburg Concedes WI Supreme Court Election, Cites 'Widespread Irregularities,' Says Problems Found During 'Recount Should be Wake-Up Call'"

* * *
Please support The BRAD BLOG's fiercely independent, award-winning coverage of your electoral system, as available from no other media outlet in the nation, with a donation to help us keep going (Snail mail, more options here). If you like, we'll send you some great, award-winning election integrity documentary films in return! Details right here...

Share article...