Amanda,

First day of the recount. Election Commission voted to test only on of each of the two types of tabulating machines (ES&S DS200 & DS850). Green Party volunteer observer objected and the Commission reconsidered, sustained the objection and tested every machine. One DS850 failed testing and was serviced by ES&S employees who were already on-site. I monitored City of Cudahy Wards 7, 8, 9 as well as 10, 11, 12. Objected to one ballot with both a filled oval and write-in vote for Hillary Clinton; City Clerk and Commission agreed to count the vote as marked. This set precedent for the remainder of the recount. The MKE County Election Commission ran a transparent, efficient and well-organized recount.

Gail,

Though not a member of the Green Party I knew you needed help and was an observer for 6 days or wards in The City of Milwaukee and the final day for Village of West Allis, Ward 9. Director of the City of Milwaukee Election Commission ran a tight ship as some tabulators working for the commission were citizens with no experience. Others were poll workers. I watched 46 wards recounted for their election night results and 16 wards recounted or absentee ballots. As the City of Milwaukee had 3 early/absentee voting sites, all absentee ballots were totaled fo the first time at Central Counting on election night and their ballots bagged separately with separate precinct reports. The process for the City was to verify all the election day ballots first, which was completed Monday morning 12/5/25 at about 10:00am. We then spent the rest of that day and subsequent days completing the absentees, and the City was completed Wednesday, 12/7/16. From all the wards I observed, there were very few problems, the most egregious being not being able to find an original ballot that was reconstructed. As the voter had been given a ballot of the wrong ward at the clerks office, we are assuming the original was included in the material for the wrong ward. All these types of discrepancies are being reconciled, matching ballots to envelopes. I do not know how this reconciliation is going.For the Village of West Allis, all the tabulators were poll workers, and the poll workers were recounting the poll site they ran election day, not doing someone else’s site. The County ran the retabulation differently than the City. For the City, once a ward was completed, it was taken by a city official to the ESS DS 850 machines, where 5 trained people ran the ballots and produced a report, and resealed them. For the County, once a ward was tabulated, the team followed the ballots to the machine where they watched the ballots being run, waited for the report and them resealed them. This process REALLY slowed down the process as teams were lined up waiting for their reports to be run. West Allis has the same number of wards as teams, so they jsut waited. But if there had been another municipality to count, it would have been delayed until all wards were run. This could have meant waiting up to two hours. Yesterday at lunch a Democratic observer reported to the Greens that the team she was watching did not seem to be taking their task seriously. For example, they said something like ” We know we had 6 reconstructed ballots, so we don’t need to look at them again and make sure information was correctly transferred” As only the Greens can verbally object, she reported this and I believe a Green went after lunch with her to make sure all ballots were reviewed. All in all, the County did really well from what I observed, I know others found problems.

Tom

DEC 09, 2016Taken on the phone by Nick.Wants to work.

Michael

DEC 09, 2016During the first hours of the first day, I saw that there were not enough observers to watch each election worker who was working directly with the votes. There may have been enough for the city of Milwaukee, but for outlying areas I would estimate it to have been one third or maybe even one fourth of the necessary observers. Some tables had no observers. And at some or all of the tables, there was a box full of votes in front of the first election worker at the table making it impossible to observe that person. At one table, there were boxes obscuring the first three election workers handling the ballots. When I said something about this particular situation, one box was moved so I was able to see the third election worker, but still not the first two. At the two tables I observed directly, the election workers knew each other because they worked together in relatively small suburbs. At the first table, where only I was sitting across from three election workers, I could observe only one at a time -and again, not the one seated behind the box of ballots. As the ballots from the first envelope were being counted, the election worker I was seated across from seemed angry. He was holding the ballots in his hand facing himself in such a way that I could not see them, and then putting them face down on the table in a forceful manner. I asked him and the election official who was standing near the table if that was how it was supposed to be done. She told him that he must turn the ballots face up so that I could see them. For a little while after this, his hands were shaking. I was planning to move to a different table to observe as the third or fourth envelope of ballots was being opened, but first I asked the election worker opening it if she “could pause for a moment because–” Without letting me finish my sentence, she said dismissively, “No, we have too much to get done.” As I brought the situation to the attention of the election worker who was walking alongside watching the tables, she told the worker who had brushed off my concern to stop, and then she had the election workers go back to the first envelope to double check a ballot I had a question about.

Craig

DEC 08, 2016Hotline report. Report taken by Lillian S.Unable to interpret (Dave)

Ellen

DEC 07, 2016I handed in my page and am not able to include it. We did have a problem with 2 bags not having the total ballots indicated on the print out. One was short by 27 ballots the other by 12. The election employees thought they would be found mixed in with others from that district but I had to leave at that point so I don’t know if this issue was resolved.

Susan, Milwaukee County

WI Recount Election Observer Reports received 12/03/16 (Numerous reports from 2 volunteers named Gail — & Stephanie –)

Susan

WI Recount Election Observer Records – Milwaukee, Documents submitted on 12/03/16 by volunteers: Sheryn, Bonnie, Corinne, Martha.

Susan, Milwaukee County

I’ve attached photos of the WI Election Commissioners who were addressing ballot issues in the Milwaukee recount location: Rick Baas, Nancy Penn, Tim Posnanski, Julietta Henry, plus some others

Lynda

DEC 02, 2016Discrepancies noted in absentee ballots which were resolved promptly by Milwaukee County Election Commission. Plan on return to same location on Monday morning at 8:30 am.