I’ve been live blogging a press conference delivered by Kevin Kennedy, director of G.A.B., Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board. The margin between Wisconsin’s Supreme Court candidates is 0.0136% in a 204 vote win for Kloppenburg against incumbent Justice David Prosser.
Prosser has not announced his formal intention to push for a recount, but with this very slight margin, a recount is widely anticipated. Prosser’s campaign manager stated he is preparing for a recount this afternoon: “We are assembling our legal team and continuing to watch our vote totals.” Source WisPolitics.com From TMJ4’s site:
| Supreme Court | REPORTING | 100% | |
| Joanne Kloppenburg | 740,090 | 50% | |
| David Prosser (inc) | 739,886 | 50% |
All votes must be canvassed and certified. That occurs late this week, or early next week. Results of the race must be certifed by county officials.
Since it is not a federal election, all ballots had to be received last night.
Following, notes from G.A.B. director Kevin Kennedy’s press conference:
Myths: There’s a myth that we do not count absentee ballots unless it is close. Wrong. We count them all last night.
All absentee ballots that were received by 8PM should be in the vote totals.
I know some references are out there that no ballots magically surface somewhere. “This is a human-driven process…We have in the past found poll workers walk away and leave a bag under the table. It’s the kind of thing that clerks check. We catch those problems as part of the process.”
Milwaukee transports their ballots in large bins, one of those ballots fell into a street. In that time this was not a close election. But we documented that.
Security on ballots? What do you have? There is a chain of custody. The county clerk keeps a chain of custody log on ballots as they come from the printer. We train individuals to follow our processes. On election night all ballots are stored in a secured container with a seal and we keep an “Inspector’s Statement”. We learn in this process exactly who is doing their job. We test machines. they are then sealed with a numbered seal. when it is open, the seal is broken. When we bring it to a site, it has a seal. Nobody can tamper with that.
These are the sorts of things that attorneys do ask for records for. We could see some breakdowns if clerks do not record things. But in most cases you can fully account for where ballots have been, and exactly where and how there is a breakdown.
Question re counting this morning… why did Lakes Mills do that?
Whether it’s a 200 vote difference of a 20,000 vote difference, we take care of these things. I don’t know if people were tired? If these were ballots that had to be made? I got a call from an attorney who said that we were short 20 ballots … I walked through the process what machines we had, how the city clerk interacts with the county clerk.
G.A.B. didn’t really know why the Lake Mills votes were done this morning. He said there have been situations where clerks say “It is 9 o’clock at night and I need to go home.”
Question re. what are historic election challenges?
In 1858 Bashford and Barstow heated Governor’s race-badly run election, the Supreme Court had to order the defeated incumbent out of the office. The court report is thick.
Who does the recount? The County Board of Canvassers conducts the recount.
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What’s entailed with a ballot challenge?
When they look at the ballot – what was the voter intent? Most of our ballots will be on paper. We have a paper backup on each vote. Canvassers will review ballots, at that point, represenatives may see each ballot and note if they think there was a mistake with that ballot.
With optical scans, they will be run through the machine again. With touch screens, we’ll review their function and make sure they work. We will review all paper ballots by hand.
We do not have lever machines. We saw lever machines not work because a dial would not turn, etc. Big mistakes can happen with lever machines.
Transposition errors, hand counting errors occur. We will see errors in the optical scans, touch screens, hand ballots and substitute ballots. We will see a lot of absentee ballots e.g. maybe a date is not correct. We see a lot of absentee ballot mistakes, e.g. no witness, no signature. These are the sorts of things that are challenged.
On election night, you determine how many people voted in a ward. You check ballot #. If # of ballots exceeds voters you reconcile-were there blank ballots? If you have more ballots still, were they all properly initialed? That could be ballot stuffing. Still more ballots? Then you do a random drawdown-it’s a legal process to reconcile. Back in 2004 there was an issue of more ballots than voters in Milwaukee. Errors were discovered in not assigning numbers to voters.
We have a constitutional right to a secret ballot. We can not tie each person to each action.
What are campaign finance laws on recounts?
Both candidates accepted public dollars. They could spend it on things through 4/4/11. Starting today they can reach out to raise money, there are no limits on amounts, but they have to get the money from a committee or individual. Money will be spent on attorneys, manpower. Money can and will be spent on tracking activities on each ballot as was done in Minnesota with their Al Franken recount.
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When would a recount begin? Recount begins within 3 days after all certified results come in. Realistically earliest request for recount could come in is late next week.
The G.A.B. director is asked how many provisional ballots will be counted. Answer: With 2.2 million votes cast we had less than 200 provisional ballots. I’d expect that number is lower this time.
Any recount process should be done before May 15th.
Question on margin of error: Less than 1 percent. “Handcounting is gonig to be the most inaccurate. You can also have mitakes with electronic systems, but we have a paper backup to rely on”.
In 1990 with the Hannaway challenge to La Follette- there was a 20,000 to 2,000 error due to an optical scan. That was discovered on election night and corrected quickly. There was no recount.
Easter weekend is coming up. This will coincide with the recount and slow it.
We are making an assumption that a recount would apply to the state, that is not necessarily the case. A smaller recount may be conducted.
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G.A.B. board interview is live on TMJ4. I am listening and typing:
These are still considered “unofficial” numbers. Today municipal clerks review all paperwork again as is par for the course for any election. Provisional ballots must be resolved by 4PM today. Handcounted, machine print-outs, etc. are bundled and delivered to county clerks. tomorrow county clerks starting at 9AM will take municipal clerk results, address any discrepencies and review paperwork. Thursday, Friday, and into next week the review process continues. Then results go to the Government Accountability Board of Wisconsin.
“These are very good numbers but they are not official numbers…this is a very human-driven process. We expect mistakes.”
Between 75-100 recounts at every election cycle. “The scrutiny that will come with this will be unprecedented.”
RESULTS as of Wednesday, Apr 06, 2011 at 02:39 pm CDT
Election Home
| Supreme Court | REPORTING | 100% | |
| Joanne Kloppenburg | 740,090 | 50% | |
| David Prosser (inc) | 739,886 | 50% |
blue cheddar 