No confidence in incompetence

When I saw Chuck Todd complaining on the twitter yesterday that the final count in the Wisconsin primary was delayed because of late results coming from Waukesha County, I thought it sounded familiar. Meant to check and then got distracted but the internets always deliver the answer if you wait a while. Sure enough, America's most inept county clerk struck again. Have to agree, it's time for Ms. Nickolaus to step down so we don't see this happen with the recall races:

The tallies start coming in; first Walker is ahead and then his Democratic opponent. The tally swings back and forth, and finally every vote is counted - except for those in Waukesha County. Once again, something has gone wrong with County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus' system. No one knows what - just that the tally is hours late or vote totals aren't accurately reported or something else is messed up, and the outcome of one of the most important races in the country this year remains in doubt.

Of course we don't know that that will happen. But Nickolaus' record in counting ballots offers no confidence that it won't; her handling of last year's state Supreme Court election results and the mess that occurred Tuesday night have damaged her office's credibility beyond repair. To restore it, Nickolaus needs to step aside - we'd prefer a simple resignation - and allow someone else to run the recall elections, starting with the Democratic primary in May.

And, while they don't mention it here, these next elections are going to be more than usually emotionally charged and if memory serves, in the Supreme Court race, it was Waukesa's revised total, after they mysteriously discovered some "lost" votes that allowed the right wing judge to keep his seat on the bench. Even if there was none, it just smells like rigging the vote. The last thing we need is for there to be any doubt about the integrity of the process in what will be a historic recall election.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]