Background infomation on the situation from my previous diary.
Monday was Youth Government Day so the recount was moved from the Board room to the Emergency Operations Center. The recount started with testimony from the Town of River Falls Clerk Ruth Stern.
Stern testified that on the Sunday before the election Harsdorf came to the clerk’s house at 7pm and delivered her absentee ballot to the clerk. This is not unusual. The Town of River Falls (adjacent to the City of River Falls) is a small municipality. The clerk uses her house for the town office. Across Wisconsin, from school teachers bringing work home to emergency responders coming in on a day off, government workers often go beyond what is required.
After filling out her ballot envelope Harsdorf then asked the clerk if she would witness the ballot and the clerk affirmed. The clerk took the ballot and then got in a discussion with Harsdorf about other issues. At some point Harsdorf left and the clerk went back to the guests she had at her house, forgetting to sign as a witness on the envelope.
Normally the clerk would be present during the election and would have noticed the ballot and made the correction. But this year Ruth Stern was on the ballot and could not be in the polling location on Election Day. In Wisconsin town clerks are a non-partisan office elected in the spring.
The poll workers on Election Day opened the Harsdorf ballot envelope without the witness signature and mixed it with the rest of the ballots. This was another error outside of normal procedure.
There was no testimony from the person that opened the ballot envelope. We do not know if they did not notice the missing witness signature and incorrect year or if they opened the envelope to give special consideration to Harsdorf.
The vote was counted on election night and confirmed at the original canvass. During the recount the missing signature was noticed. This disallowed the vote, forcing a drawdown of the absentee ballots.
Following the testimony of Ruth Stern the members of the Pierce County Board of Canvassers discussed the situation. County Clerk Jamie Feuerhelm made a motion to rescind the action to reject the ballot and include the ballot currently attached to the Harsdorf envelope in the vote count. No other member of the Board of Canvassers seconded the motion so no action was taken.
The recount for Pierce County Wisconsin was completed with a change from the original certified canvass by Kloppenburg +11 and Prosser +3 votes. Some common errors included how to deal with overvotes and write in votes. Other mistakes involved voter numbering and other human errors.
Some of the problems were corrected on election night or at the original canvass and others were identified during the recount. With each step of the process checks are in place and there is opportunity for public oversight. While there is room for improvement the process in Pierce County reassures me of the security and validity of our elections.
The types of human errors that resulted in the rejection of the Harsdorf ballot occur, and are some of the most difficult. No one wants to not have their ballot counted or to not be able to vote. These are the kind of errors we can and should focus on preventing. We should make sure all Wisconsin citizens get their vote counted.
Under the current law allowing same day voter registration and provisional ballots there are still citizens that wanted to vote but could not on election day. Voters are often not told about provisional ballots, or cannot find the information they need to prove residency. There were zero provisional ballots issued in Pierce County in the recent election, despite many people being sent away from the polls with inadequate identification.
Even for a person registered in advance there could be problems. If they used their middle initial when state records have their middle name or the reverse their registration may not have been processed.
Bad handwriting is another common problem. When they clerks can't read the information they can't process the request. With the republican cuts to elementary education I would expect more problems with this in the future. In the end voting is about much more than having good handwriting or if you put 2010 as the year instead of 2011 – these factors should not prevent a person from voting.
It should be the goal of our process to expedite voting, and to ensure that every person gets their vote counted. Instead Harsdorf is pushing through a bill that would turn more people away from the polls on Election Day through government red tape and big bureaucracy.
Harsdorf thinks it is okay for her to go vote absentee at 7pm on a Sunday night. Why then does she want to force her residents to take a day off work and go to a DMV so that they may cast a ballot?
Below the fold is a picture of the DMV hours at the courthouse in Ellsworth. They are open the 3rd Tuesday of every odd month. That is only six times a year. The nearest DMV to Ellsworth open 5 days a week is twenty five miles away in Hudson. Note the lack of evening and weekend hours.
With gas over four dollars a gallon Harsdorf would force residents to drive to Hudson to be counted. For some this is a sixty five mile plus trip. I guess money for gas is no problem when you get hundreds of thousands of dollars in big government subsidies like Harsdorf does. The biblical parallels are almost funny in a sad sort of way. Maybe the voter can find a manger to stay in if the motels are full. I'm fairly certain there will be a no vacancy sign at the Harsdorf inn.
Under the Harsdorf plan a big government program forces citizens to carry their papers. If Harsdorf keeps making the state this shade of red we will all have to address each other as comrade. “May I see your papers comrade” will become the new slogan of the Republican Party.
But today a spot of blue appeared. Today Shelly Moore has announced her candidacy to replace Sheila Harsdorf.
Volunteers collected over 23,000 signatures to recall Harsdorf. With only 60 days to complete this task they finished with weeks to spare. Now these volunteers are rested and ready to go back to work to ensure progressive representation for the district. The election is July 12th, the volunteers will show what a large group of committed people can do.
It is time to put the state of Wisconsin back in D and move forward.
To keep up to date with information on the campaign like Shelly Moore on facebook or visit http://mooreforwisconsin.com.
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