Democracy is 2 democrats and 1 republican deciding how to count votes

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

In the wake of the state's hotly contested Supreme Court race, a sharply divided Milwaukee Election Commission voted along party lines Thursday to prohibit its own members from speaking to reporters or seeking aid from law enforcement agencies on the commission's behalf.

Robert Spindell, the lone Republican on the three-member panel, angrily accused majority Democrats of trying to muzzle him, while the two Democratic commissioners insisted they were trying to prevent chaos from individual commissioners "going rogue."

Both sides told each other they should be ashamed of themselves, with Spindell backed by conservatives - primarily suburban residents - in the audience.

The debate reflected long-standing controversy over Milwaukee elections. In recent years, Republicans have claimed vote fraud in the largely Democratic city, while Democrats have pointed to repeated investigations that found few instances of such problems.

Thursday's votes stemmed from Spindell's actions as it became apparent that the April 5 race between Justice David Prosser and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg was extremely close.

After midnight on election night, Spindell sent an email to the Journal Sentinel, saying he was asking police to guard the Election Commission's ballot warehouse because of the closeness of the high court race. He said he later spoke to a television station about the issue.

Spindell says police showed up and were turned away by the commission staff. But Executive Director Sue Edman and Deputy Director Neil Albrecht say they never saw or spoke to police, and police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in an email, "MPD was never asked to provide any security for the warehouse."

Next, Spindell said he turned to the Milwaukee County sheriff's office, led by Sheriff David A. Clarke, a conservative Democrat often aligned with Republicans. The sheriff's office guarded the building from the night of April 6 until Monday, when the ballots were taken to the county Election Commission, Spindell and Edman said.

A sheriff's office spokeswoman was unable to immediately provide details about the office's involvement.

Under a pair of policies proposed by Democratic Commissioner David Redemann, comments to the media or requests for security would have to come from Edman. Both policies would require her to issue news releases denouncing any commissioner who violates the policies.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119889939.html