The GAB has smoothed out a few wrinkles in their system. They promised to update their website with daily totals, but the spreadsheet posted after Day 1 was filled with what they described as transcription errors. They pulled it on the morning of the second day and started from scratch. After Day 2, they posted a spreadsheet that had totals for 52 precincts (the first error-laden sheet had results from 502 precincts.) Apparently they are doing some double and triple checking now before adding a precinct's totals to the sheet.

The totals are still unofficial, but they make more sense tonight. The GAB also seems to be catching up after the false start. Tonight's spreadsheet has totals for 525 precincts.

So, where are we? Incumbent David Prosser has gained 33 net votes so far on challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. The most interesting statistic from the spreadsheet, though, is the number of votes added to the "scattered" category. Those are write-in votes, for the most part.

For the 52 counties, there were either 143 or 145 more votes counted* in the recount than in the first canvass. Of those, 71 went to Prosser, 38 went to Kloppenburg, and 34 were added to the "scattered" category. Apparently Mickey Mouse is making a surge!

If these rates hold, it will obviously make no difference in the outcome of the election. Prosser has gained 0.012% of the votes counted so far. The big counties are still out there, though, including most of Milwaukee, Dane and Waukesha Counties. All it takes is one gigantic human error, and Kloppenburg could be right back in this thing. It's happened before, right?

Scattered reports of varying reliability have surfaced alleging broken chains of custody for some ballots. The canvassing boards and the GAB claim to have resolved those, at least to the satisfaction of those observing in official capacities. Some of those reports have made their way to the Daily Kos "recommended" list, including details of 97 ballots in Verona (Dane County) that were found in an unsecured stack of papers on an office desk.

Apparently there were enough questions in Delafield (in Waukesha County) to motivate the Kloppenburg campaign to send their attorneyto monitor vote-counting there:

Earlier Friday a clerk discovered that one of the bags full of ballots from the Town of Delafield was not properly sealed. The Kloppenburg campaign said that means there was the possibility that people could have had access to the bag of ballots. On Thursday, a different bag containing hundreds of ballots wasn't recorded on the poll inspector's log. That bag was also from the Town of Delafield... “I was obtained to come down here to ensure the integrity of the process on behalf of the Kloppenburg campaign. "It’s my understanding that there’s been some issues with bags, ballot bags, identification numbers not adding up, so they just wanted to ensure that all the proper procedures were followed," Maistelman said.



...hat-tip churchlady

I'm not ready to call shenanigans at this point, but if we continue to see one or two of these episodes every day it will call the integrity of this election into question. I'm already questioning the ability of the GAB to train Wisconsin's county clerks in proper election procedures. I believe they have used the adverb "smoothly" in each of the 3 nightly updates so far.

Everything is under control. Do not panic. We know what we're doing. We expected these anomalies. This happens in every recount.



Just once I'd like to read "Geez, we really messed up on that one, but we've got a pretty good idea of how to fix it."

Here's how the GAB sums up Day 3:

Day Three Summary

Posted: April 29, 2011 - 4:59pm

The statewide recount continues to go smoothly. G.A.B. staff received many questions today focusing on circumstances where absentee ballots are rejected, and the "drawdown process" by which ballots are removed. There have also been questions about what to do with absentee ballots where there are not signatures on the certification envelope or if there are not initals on ballots. For information on drawdown procedures, consult the Recount Procedures Manual. All these issues have been resolved by local Boards of Canvassers with the assistance of G.A.B. staff. Regarding the spreadsheet, staff will be working on Saturday to provide updated numbers as they come in. There will be no updates on Sunday.



* Two records in the spreadsheet have incorrect "Un-Official Recount Total of Votes Cast for S.C.", each off by 1. Record 151 has 218 for Prosser and 166 for Kloppenburg, but total SC votes 385. Record 154 has 135 for Prosser and 54 for Kloppenburg, but total SC votes 190.