Margaret,
DEC 12, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016. Day 8. Grand Chute wards 1-3 uses different colored ballots for each ward but stores them all together after the election. The ward that uses the white ballots accidentally mailed out a pink ballot to an absent voter. When it was noted on Election Day, it was set aside to be remade but was forgotten. The ballot was counted and stored. At the recount it was placed with the pink ballots and thus each section was off by one. The Grand Chute clerk and chief inspector sorted through all the notes and found the error. Sue showed up today, introduced herself to me as a member of the Stein/Green party observers who was creating a video document of all the different counties to see how different areas did things. She interviewed me and I started to show her around the room. We spent some time by the optical scanner machines where ballots were being fed. She talked with a few of the workers about the machines and why they got involved with the election work. She interviewed the clerk from Grand Chute and the members of the board of canvassers. That was what she was doing when I was giving shift change report to Nettie so I could leave for the day. Report…Town of Grand Chute wards 1-3 – write-in McMullin +1. Town of Maine ward 1 – Trump -3. Village of Nicholas ward 1 – no difference. Village of Shiocton ward 1 – no difference.
Margaret
DEC 12, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016. Day 7. Jim returned this morning and informed me that he was taking over team leadership during the time he was there; he was determined to obtain the clicker versus machine data. He brought with him, his sister-in-law to help since I had previously voiced my opinion of how that information was not going to show anything. The two proceeded to try and obtain the data from the current ward that was being ran through the optical scanner machine today. However their results were off, or inconclusive as Jim would like it noted since 6 duplicate ballots were found in a separate envelope and there was confusion as to why they were there. Jim did eventually admit to me that there was some issues keeping up with the machine and remembering if they had clicked on the insertion of the ballot or the noise of the ballot being accepted. Human error was my main concern for not doing the clicker in the first place, I appeared to be proven correct. Back to the 6 duplicate ballots … the City of New London had incomplete inspector notes and only 3 of the duplicated ballots were re-written exactly, so we did not know if these were spoiled ballots or duplicates. A call was made to the New London clerk’s office for clarification. She asked for the inspector’s sheet to be faxed over so she could read it, our board of canvassers complicated. Upon getting back to us the clerk had no reasonably answer for us. It was than requested by the canvassers that the clerk and the chief inspector from New London plus the inspector who wrote the notes appear in person to the recount room the next morning to sort out the ballots. The board of canvassers asked if all party observers were in agreement with this decision. We were 1 ½ hrs was spent from the time of discovery to the time of final decision. But as always our board of canvassers was very open with everything going on and made all phone calls on speaker phone for the observers to listen in on. There was nothing to object to since the protocols were followed and transparency of the Outagamie County recount room is never an issue. The Town of Main’s DRE machine was brought in today, set up, and the audit tape was ran to be compared to yesterday’s blurred section. Report …Town of Grand Chute wards 11-14 – total presidential units off by 14/ Trump +7/ Clinton +6/ write-in McMullin +1. Town of Grand Chute wards 15-17 – no difference. Town of Greenville wards 1-3,5,7&8 – total presidential units off by 26/ Clinton +5/ Johnson-1/ write-in McMullin +11. Village of Bear Creek ward 1 – no difference. Village of Hortonville wards 1-3 – Trump +3/ Clinton +1/ write-in Roque De La Fuente +1.
Margaret
DEC 12, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016. Day 6. Town of Main found a 3 inch section of the DRE tape that was blurred. There was a note made on Election Day, that the machine jammed and the roll of paper was changed. According to the hand recount, Trump was down one vote. The board of canvassers called the command center for verification on how to proceed. Command center advices that the original DRE machine be brought in to the recount room and an audit tape be ran to see if the blurred section can be determined. Board of canvassers concur with that decision. Town of Seymour had a drawdown on Election Day, two under voted ballots were located and the drawdown was taken from them. During the recount an extra vote for Trump was detected, and only one under voted ballot was found. The total number of ballots was the same for both counts. Trump was given the extra vote found during the recount. A Mr. Jim, who had shown up briefly on day one; on his way up to Brown County’s recount, stopped by again to see how things were going. I informed him of our progress and he asked if I was able to get results with a hand clicker versus the machines for ballot tabulations. When I told him that we did not have more than one observer on per shift for the Stein/Green Party on any given day, and that the clicker did not seem important enough to me to ignore the rest of the room proceedings for and so as team leader I choose not to do it. He was not amused. He gave me his phone number should I needed to contact him and left. Mine you, this was day six; he never gave me this information on the first day he came to see us. This put up a red flag in my mind about who this guy really was, but I continued with my day. Report… Town of Liberty ward 1 – Trump +1. Town of Seymour wards 1&2 – Trump +1. Town of Vandenbroek wards 1-3 – Trump +3/ Clinton +1. Village of Combined Locks wards 1-5 – Trump +1/ Clinton-1/ write-in McMullin +1.
Margaret
DEC 12, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016. Day 5. Town of Buchanan was missing the voter registration books upon opening the ballot boxes. The town clerk was called and the backup online registration numbers will be printed to verify the number of voters versus the number of ballots. Also the town clerk will be coming in to personally run the ballots through the machine to insure the accuracy of the Town of Buchanan. Report… Town of Black Creek wards 1&2 – Trump -1/ write-in McMullin +2. Town of Cicero wards 1&2 – total presidential units off by 1/ write-in Fox +1. Town of Ellington wards 1-5 – total presidential units off by 2/ write-in McMullin +2. Town of Freedom wards 1-8 – total presidential units off by 2/ Clinton +1/ write-in Keniston +1. Town of Hortonia wards 1&2 – no difference. Town of Onieda wards 1-6 – no difference. Town of Osborn wards 1&2 – total presidential units off by 1/ Trump-1. Village of Wrightstown ward 4 – no difference.
Margaret
DEC 12, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016. Day 4. Appleton ward 16 resulted in a drawdown. The ballots were checked and an under voted presidential ballot was found and was determined by the board of canvassers to be the one needed draw down ballot. The ward was then continued to be closed. This note was copied and pasted from Day 3’s report when it was discovered. Report … Appleton ward 16 – no number difference but see note above on drawdown. Appleton ward 24 – total ballots off by 3/ total presidential units off by 3/ Clinton-3. Appleton ward 25 – total ballots off by 5/ total presidential units off by 3/ Trump- 2/ Clinton-3/ write-in McMullin +2. Appleton ward 28 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Trump-1. Appleton ward 29 – no difference. Appleton ward 30 – total presidential units off by 6/ write-in McMullin +5/ write-in Maturen +1. Appleton ward 33 – no difference. Appleton ward 34 – no difference. Appleton ward 37 – no difference. Appleton ward 38 – no difference. Appleton ward 39 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Clinton-1. Appleton ward 48 – total ballots off by 1/ no other numbers changed. Appleton ward 51 – no difference. Appleton ward 57 – no difference. Town of Center wards 1-7 – total presidential units off by 2/ write-in Roque De La Fuente -2. Town of Dale wards 1-3 – total presidential units off by 1/Trump -2/ Clinton +2/ write-in McMullin -2/ write-in Keniston +1. Town of Deer Creek ward 1 – no difference. Town of Maple Creek ward 1 – no difference.
Margaret
DEC 07, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016 Day 3.Each morning clear and concise instructions are given to the workers. Reminders of what they are looking for, the importance of the recount, and questions are answered if there are any. Our county has been working well together, the workers are diligent in catching errors and questioning the canvassers as to how they want to proceed. Even though we have only seen minor issue so far, I am pleased with the dedication of the staff and poll workers from the Outagamie County. Appleton wards 24 & 25 are logistically split between Outagamie County and Calumet County. While recounting the ballots for those wards last night, 11 ballots were missing. However this morning we received a call from Calumet County telling us an envelope of ballots marked for our county was found in their box … wards 24 & 25. A courier was sent to retrieve them and later in the day wards 24 & 25 were recounted and closed out.Appleton ward 16 resulted in a drawdown. The ballots were checked and an under voted presidential ballot was found and was determined by the board of canvassers to be the one needed draw down ballot. The ward was then continued to be closed.Appleton ward 34 presented an unusual situation … a ballot was found upon opening of the sealed boxes that was from 2014. This was a non-presidential election year and it was noted that it was accidentally ran through the machine and it created a presidential vote. The edge marks on the ballot matched the code for this year. It was caught on election night, the ballots were reran through the machines before submitting totals, however the 2014 ballot was sealed in an envelope and stored with the ballots because it was never determined how it got there in the first place. Report… Appleton ward 15 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1 Appleton ward 17 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1 Appleton ward 18 – total ballots off by 1/ Trump-1 Appleton ward 20 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-2 (Inspector noted machine jam) Appleton ward 21 – no difference Appleton ward 22 – no difference Appleton ward 27 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Clinton-1 Appleton ward 40 – no difference Appleton ward 41 – total presidential units off by -1 / no other number changes Appleton ward 42 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Trump-1/ Clinton-1/ write-in McMullin +1 Appleton ward 43 – no difference in total ballots/ write-in McMullin +2 Appleton ward 50 – no difference Appleton ward 52 – no difference Appleton ward 55 – no difference Appleton ward 56 – no difference Town of Bovina ward 1&2 – no difference
Margaret
DEC 07, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016 Day 2. We still seem so but less prepared than the other party observers, they came with forms and documents and proper training on day one … we are still learning on the job and looking stupid. Last night the email came out to wear green today so the other team members could find us and we could show support to the Green Party … ugh a day late guys, all the media and reporters were here on day one to see the kick off of the recount. Pull it together Stein group this is not the way to handle a group of volunteers in a state wide project. I had 3 new volunteers show up this morning, two were a husband and wife team from a smaller ward and they got so overwhelmed with the process of what was expected from them they said they were not coming back. Point as to how poor this group has trained people.Report… A third ballot scanner machine was brought in to help keep the recount on track Appleton ward 4 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1 Appleton ward 6 – no difference Appleton ward 7 – write-in McMullin+1 Appleton ward 8 – write-in McMullin +2 Appleton ward 9 – total ballots off by 1 (clerical error) Appleton ward 10 – write-in McMullin +2 Appleton ward 11 – Trump +1/ Johnson-1 Appleton ward 19 – total ballots off by 1/ Trump-1/ Clinton -1 Appleton ward 35 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1/ write-in McMullin +1/ (originally was noted as a machine error but board of canvassers are calling it a clerical error) Appleton ward 36 – total ballots off by 1/ write-in McMullin +3 Appleton ward 49 – no difference
Margaret
Outagamie County Recount 2016
Day 3
Each morning clear and concise instructions are given to the workers. Reminders of what they are looking for, the importance of the recount, and questions are answered if there are any. Our county has been working well together, the workers are diligent in catching errors and questioning the canvassers as to how they want to proceed. Even though we have only seen minor issue so far, I am pleased with the dedication of the staff and poll workers from the Outagamie County.
Appleton wards 24 & 25 are logistically split between Outagamie County and Calumet County. While recounting the ballots for those wards last night, 11 ballots were missing. However this morning we received a call from Calumet County telling us an envelope of ballots marked for our county was found in their box … wards 24 & 25. A courier was sent to retrieve them and later in the day wards 24 & 25 were recounted and closed out.
Appleton ward 16 resulted in a drawdown. The ballots were checked and an under voted presidential ballot was found and was determined by the board of canvassers to be the one needed draw down ballot. The ward was then continued to be closed.
Appleton ward 34 presented an unusual situation … a ballot was found upon opening of the sealed boxes that was from 2014. This was a non-presidential election year and it was noted that it was accidentally ran through the machine and it created a presidential vote. The edge marks on the ballot matched the code for this year. It was caught on election night, the ballots were reran through the machines before submitting totals, however the 2014 ballot was sealed in an envelope and stored with the ballots because it was never determined how it got there in the first place.
Report…
Appleton ward 15 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1
Appleton ward 17 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1
Appleton ward 18 – total ballots off by 1/ Trump-1
Appleton ward 20 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-2 (Inspector noted machine jam)
Appleton ward 21 – no difference
Appleton ward 22 – no difference
Appleton ward 27 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Clinton-1
Appleton ward 40 – no difference
Appleton ward 41 – total presidential units off by -1 / no other number changes
Appleton ward 42 – total ballots off by 1/ total presidential units off by 1/ Trump-1/ Clinton-1/ write-in McMullin +1
Appleton ward 43 – no difference in total ballots/ write-in McMullin +2
Appleton ward 50 – no difference
Appleton ward 52 – no difference
Appleton ward 55 – no difference
Appleton ward 56 – no difference
Town of Bovina ward 1&2 – no difference
Margaret, Outagamie County
DEC 03, 2016Outagamie County Recount 2016 Day 2Report… A third ballot scanner machine was brought in to help keep the recount on trackAppleton ward 4 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1 Appleton ward 6 – no difference Appleton ward 7 – write-in McMullin+1 Appleton ward 8 – write-in McMullin +2Appleton ward 9 – total ballots off by 1 (clerical error) Appleton ward 10 – write-in McMullin +2Appleton ward 11 – Trump +1/ Johnson-1Appleton ward 19 – total ballots off by 1/ Trump-1/ Clinton -1Appleton ward 35 – total ballots off by 1/ Clinton-1/ write-in McMullin +1/ (originally was noted as a machine error but board of canvassers are calling it a clerical error)Appleton ward 36 – total ballots off by 1/ write-in McMullin +3Appleton ward 49 – no difference
Michael
DEC 02, 2016I counted 31 people at the recount station. Most of the time they were all busy. There were some inexperienced people there. If any of them found a problem they asked for help right away to resolve the issue. The only time I saw any down time is when a precinct was being reconciled.