Colin
DEC 08, 2016I was an observer of the recount from 9am to 130pm. Municipals counted during my time there included, Aminicon, Maple, Hawthorne, Gordon, Village of Superior, and the 27th-29th ward was underway when I left. There were small changes of +1 or -1 to Trump and Clinton in two of the Municipals, other than that the count came out the same as election night counts. Thanks for the chance to get involved with the process as it was very interesting. On a side note the officer at the door told us when we arrived that we already had representation in the room and were not needed. Both I and the other Green Party member took it at face value and turned to leave. As we were walking away we decided that we would like to at least observe the process. So we returned and the officer noted that people from the Clinton Campaign were already in the room. This did satisfy us and we stated we wanted to be let in as observers, the officer than have us our name badge and we were allowed to enter.This was my first experience where someone tried to keep me out of a political process simply because I did not represent a major party. Helps me understand what I am fighting for.Green party representation!
Eric
Here are a few of my observations during the recount in Douglas County, WI on Thursday 12/1/16.
- I missed the name of the town where the first results were read, but when reading the results, they announced that on election night, Trump received 208 votes. For the recount, Trump received 209 votes. Clinton received 140 votes for both counts.
- For Amnicon, Wisconsin, there was one ballot missing during the recount. When the final tallies were announced, they said that on election night, Trump received 303 votes and received 303 votes during the recount. On election night, Clinton received 308 votes, however during the recount, Clinton received one less vote and was given a tally of 307 votes.
- For Hawthorne, WI, the seal number on the bag did not match the seal number written on the label. The seal number on the bag was 00057062 and the seal number written on the label was 0503474.
- Also for Hawthorne, WI, it was announced by one official that the “envelopes were not sealed” for Hawthorne while she held two envelopes which were not sealed.
- The ballot counters at one table were instructed to put ballots for McMullin in the “scattering” pile if his running mate was not listed as Johnson, and in that scenario would not be counted in the final tally for McMullin. I do not know if any write-in votes for McMullin were indeed placed into the “scattering” pile after the counters received this instruction.
- There were 6 “re-made” ballots in one bag, but ballot counters were only able to find 5 of the 6 original ballots. “Re-made ballot #6” was set aside. “Re-made ballot #6” contained a vote for Clinton.