|
quick post with my impressions of the first day of recount in Oshkosh.
A great clerk will make or break a recount, as far as the process is concerned. The Winnebago County Clerk and the Oshkosh City Clerk were prepared with plenty of people, they had everything organized, but they also were flexible enough to make adjustments to the plan once things got going. The room was set up efficiently, which was essential, since it was not a large room. An area was delineated for the general observers, but the campaign's representatives could move about as needed in order to watch the process closely.
When we first got there, we had five people for the Kloppenburg side. That dropped to four partway through the day. There were two Prosser volunteers (?) and a court reporter. The court reporter was sitting in the back corner of the room, so I went to talk with her and ask her who she was working for. She was hired by the Prosser camp. However, she was only there to type in whatever went into the record (I suppose she'd also report on any conflicts that took place, but she couldn't have heard much from where she was. Most of the time she was reading a book, chatting with one of the door watchers, or talking on the phone. I hope the Prosser campaign is paying her $120 per hour! :) The prosser people called in reinforcements partway into the day, so they ended up with probably 8 or 10 people in the room - it was hard to tell how many, as everyone was sort of squished in, and I was trying to focus on my one job of examining and counting ballots. The prosser people who were there were all pretty nice, so it was nothing like attending a tBag rally at the square. Nobody stepped on me, and a couple of us were chatting about going out for drinks afterwards, except that we had a two-hour drive to get back home.
I still have data entry to get in to the Kloppenburg office, so I'm not going to take the time to explain the whole process that we used. The City of Oshkosh, which we started with, uses optical scan machines that were going to be used for the recount of the OS ballots, and electronic machines that had produced a tape. This tape is displayed on election day, so as the voter casts his ballot, he can see the printout that indicates who he voted for.
In the recount, there are several processes going on at any given time, so it's ideal to have several observers at each location. But I'd say if we had only one person observing, I'd have that person examining the OS ballots and counting at that time. After the ballots were counted and sorted for absentees, the pollworker paged through all of the optical scan ballots with both candidates representatives hanging over his shoulder. We had the opportunity to ask him to pull any ballots that we thought might not be scanned properly by the machine. I asked them to pull any Kloppenburg ballots that were marked in ball point pen, or if the oval was not completely filled in, or if someone made an X or line instead of filling in the oval. The ballots that were pulled out were hand counted as soon as we were done sorting through the ballots. Since I was able to examine each ballot, I used a handheld counter to keep a count of the Kloppenburg votes, even though these precincts were not technically being handcounted, they were in essence being handcounted for the Kloppenburg votes. If I had had two counters to use, I could have kept track of Prosser votes, as well. There were no disputes about any of the ballots that were pulled out - voter intent was obvious, so the handcount of those didn't present any disputes.
Of course the first couple of wards were a little bumpy, as everyone figured out the logistics and what the exact process would be, but we never once questioned the intent of the clerks. They take ownership of these elections - not in the way that Kathy Nickolaus does(!) - but by wanting it all to be done properly and clearly. They announce seal numbers as they're being removed from bags, and gave us ample opportunity to examine and take photos of seals and documentation. The few discrepancies in the poll books were worked through until they could figure out exactly what had happened (one number used twice, a person getting marked in the wrong ward, etc.), and the clerk then explained the resolution clearly to both candidates' representatives, to everyone's satisfaction. One man had voted absentee, and the Dep Clerk had not noticed that the return address was from a neighboring town. They realized that at the Board of Canvassers meeting, and the Clerk brought it up as an issue for us to discuss. They made phone calls and found out that the man had moved to a nursing home about a year and a half ago, but I'm sure still considered his old address in Oshkosh to be HIS HOME. The County Clerk checked that neighboring Town's poll list to make sure the man had not voted in both places. Since he hadn't, we all agreed that it was fine that his ballot had already been processed on election day for a state-wide race. No arguments, just clear discussions.
So, to make a LLLLllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggg day short, my advice, in addition to counting the K ballots as they're being examined, is to continue to BE NICE, BE NICE, BE NICE!!! We were in a conservative county, with a conservative clerk, and probably virtually all of the workers were conservative. When we first got there, there may have been a little chilliness, particularly as these pollworkers who have diligently worked elections for decades may have thought that THEIR work was being questioned. But as the day went on, we won them over, and we ended up having a good time. I made it a point to compliment the County Clerk and City Clerk and the pollworkers several times. It was not false praise - they asked a few times how we thought things were going, and we really were impressed with how well they worked through this process.
We have some questions about how their undervotes are documented, so my partner will be pursuing that today. But all in all, I'm very pleased with day one of the recount in Winnebago County. In the six wards that we completed (out of seventy-some), each side gained 2 votes, I believe. I would have wished for more K votes to be found, of course, but at least we can have confidence that the votes have been counted fairly.
One last thing - as we drove down from Oshkosh, I read someone's facebook callout for more volunteers in Madison, saying they'd work until 8:00pm. It was about 7:30 when we hit Madison, so we decided to stop by the CC bldg to see what their procedure was. They were just finishing up for the night when we got there, but we were able to talk to a couple of people and look at the room. They had a much nicer room, cushy chairs and lots more space than we had in Oshkosh. But the atmosphere was completely different. Part of that was due to the highly-paid attorneys who were sitting there for the Prosser camp - it all felt a lot more formal. A volunteer told me that one of the men wore a tag or button clearly indicating that he was from Americans for Prosperity!!! And the attorney sitting there all day was the brother of Jim Troupis, the lead attorney on the Prosser side. Jim's brother had flown in from Idaho for this recount. Judging by his suit and the fact that he is staying at a hotel, NOT with his brother, I'd guess that he's not a cheap hire, even with a family discount! They also had a court reporter there all day for the Prosser side.
So, despite the fact that it's a two-hour drive each way, and the working conditions are pretty sucky, I'm glad that I'm working in Oshkosh, just because I'm working with actual human beings!
I had to take today and tomorrow off because of appointments, so my partner is up there now, and he has called in for some reinforcements.
OK, this has gotten longer than I intended. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! PLEASE volunteer for the recount effort. We really need people, and you don't need any experience to be able to be VERY helpful! Email KloppenburgVolunteer@gmail.com to volunteer!
THANK YOU! :patriot:
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
