Democracy in action in Prairie du Sac

Votes from a monastery for Cistercian nuns have been tossed out in the Wisconsin Supreme Court recount.

Elections officials say the 18 absentee ballots from the Valley of Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac have been rejected because they lacked a witness signature.

Absentee ballots and applications were dropped off at the monastary and picked them up again on Election Day, when they were counted. But during the recount of the race between Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, it was discovered witness signatures were missing from 18 absentee ballots.

"They're cloistered nuns," explained Alene Bolin, assistant corporation counsel for Sauk County. "So the clerk dropped off an envelope with all the absentee ballots and applications with them. On the day of the election, she picked them up and dropped them off at the polling place. The absentee ballots were opened there and counted. During the recount, it was discovered that there was no witness signature."

Because canvassers were unable to match the ballots to the actual voters, they took all 24 absentee ballots from the Town of Sumpter, where votes from the monastery are counted, randomly drew 18 and rejected them.

Of those rejected, Prosser had 14 votes and Kloppenburg four.

Chicago Tribune

By the way Sam Lucero has some nice photos of the sisters there.

HT Steve