Wisconsin Election Commission Prepares to Move Forward with Recount | lovebscott.com

Wisconsin Election Commission Prepares to Move Forward with Recount

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The Wisconsin Elections Commission received two recount petitions — one from Jill Stein and one from Rocky Roque De La Fuente.

“The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Administrator Michael Haas said.

Earlier this week, Jill Stein launched a fundraising effort to pay for the recount fee — which is still being calculated. As of this post, she’s raised over $5 million and plans to use the money to cover the recount fees for Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The recount request deadlines for the later two states aren’t until next week.

The Wisconsin recount is said to begin late next week after Jill Stein’s campaign pays for the recount fee.

via WI Elections Committee:

“We have assembled an internal team to direct the recount, we have been in close consultation with our county clerk partners, and have arranged for legal representation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice,” Haas said. “We plan to hold a teleconference meeting for county clerks next week and anticipate the recount will begin late in the week after the Stein campaign has paid the recount fee, which we are still calculating.” 

The last statewide recount was of the Supreme Court election in 2011.  At that time, the Associated Press surveyed county clerks and reported that costs to the counties exceeded $520,000, though several counties did not respond to the AP’s survey.  That election had 1.5 million votes, and Haas said the Commission expects the costs to be higher for an election with 2.975 million votes.  “The Commission is in the process of obtaining cost estimates from county clerks so that we can calculate the fee which the campaigns will need to pay before the recount can start,” Haas said. The Commission will need to determine how the recount costs will be assessed to the campaigns. 

The state is working under a federal deadline of December 13 to complete the recount. As a result, county boards of canvassers may need to work evenings and weekends to meet the deadlines. “The recount process is very detail-oriented, and this deadline will certainly challenge some counties to finish on time,” Haas said.   

A recount is different than an audit and is more rigorous, Haas explained.  More than 100 reporting units across the state were randomly selected for a separate audit of their voting equipment as required by state law, and that process has already begun.  Electronic voting equipment audits determine whether all properly-marked ballots are accurately tabulated by the equipment.  In a recount, all ballots (including those that were originally hand counted) are examined to determine voter intent before being retabulated. In addition, the county boards of canvassers will examine other documents, including poll lists, written absentee applications, rejected absentee ballots, and provisional ballots before counting the votes. 

Let the recount begin.

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