Samantha Hernandez

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

STURGEON BAY - At the end of the second day of the presidential election ballot recount, a review of 13 Door County municipalities had been completed.

The historic recount began Thursday and will continue Saturday. Door County Clerk Jill Lau said she expects the recount to wrap up Wednesday. The state has until 8 p.m. Dec. 12 to finish.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein paid $3.5 million Tuesday to start the recount of Wisconsin's presidential election, which Donald Trump won by about 22,000 votes. In Door County, Trump received 8,584 vote, 48.75 percent; Clinton received 8,026 votes, or 45.58 percent; and Stein received 145 votes, or 0.82 percent, according to unofficial results.

The counts for municipalities completed on Thursday included the villages of Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Forestville and Sister Bay, and the town of Baileys Harbor.

Vote totals shifted slightly for Sister Bay, Ephraim and Baileys Harbor.

In Sister Bay, Trump and Clinton each lost three votes, either from an absentee ballot not being signed properly or a ballot duplication error. Trump started with 270 votes and finished with 267, and Clinton started with 361 and ended with 358.

The ballots are eliminated through a “drawdown,” Lau said. The ballots are spread out in a pile on a table and the number of necessary ballots are randomly selected.

Ballots are taken out this way since no one knows which ballot was the one with the signature issue or duplication error, she said.

In Ephraim, another absentee ballot lacked a necessary signature and Clinton lost one of her 140 votes. Trump maintained his 89 votes.

In Baileys Harbor, the count was one short due to a ballot becoming “jammed” inside a voting machine, Lau said.

On Friday, additional municipalities completed included the towns of Brussels, Clay Banks, Egg Harbor, Forestville, Gardner, Gibraltar, Jacksonport and the town of Sturgeon Bay.

The drawdown in Brussels was triggered by more ballots going through the voting machine than voter numbers issued, Lau said. Trump stayed at 374 votes and Clinton’s 201 votes dropped to 200.

A signature issue on an absentee ballot caused a drawdown in Gardner. Trump held on to his 424 votes and Clinton lost one of her 246 votes, the clerk said.

The Gibraltar drawdown was also caused by a signature issue on an absentee ballot, Lau said. Trump maintained his 325 votes and Clinton dropped from 429 to 428 votes.

It is undecided whether there will be a drawdown for the town of Sturgeon Bay due to a signature issue on an absentee ballot, she said. Trump went from 272 to 271 in the drawdown and Clinton maintained 224 votes.

On Saturday tabulators and the Board of Canvassers are scheduled to start with town of Liberty Grove.

At 9 a.m. Thursday Lau ran through directions with those who came to observe the process, including asking if anyone in the audience was a political party representative. Only political party representatives can have any say as the ballots are counted. No reps appeared to be among the rotating group of about 12 observers.

By the end of the day Thursday, only three people were continuing to observe the proceedings. At least two were taking notes to record the vote counts, including Keli Groenfeldt, a member of the Democratic Party.

Groenfeldt spent the whole day in the Peninsula room of the Door County Government Center in Sturgeon Bay.

“It’s my first time participating in a recount and it doesn’t happen often, so I thought it would be a good experience to see how it’s done,” she said.

Throughout the day observers watched, while quietly talking to one another, as tabulators and the Board of Canvassers worked their way through the ballots. Lau announced each municipality as the square blue ballot bags were opened.

Lau estimated the recount will cost about $14,000.

Excluding Door County Clerk Chief Deputy Barb Pavlik, the canvassers and tabulators are earning $25 an hour, Lau said. Pavlik can receive overtime if needed, but Lau will only receive her regular salary.

People came to watch the recount for differing reasons.

“I am absolutely for the recount … because I feel it is important to support a credible election process,” said Alisa Landman, of Sturgeon Bay.

Landman did not contribute to the funds raised by Stein for the recount, but she wanted to do something. She plans to sit in on the recount process as much as possible.

Richard Woldt, of Sturgeon Bay, said the recount is ridiculous, in part because Stein can not win.

Judy Ritter of Sturgeon Bay said the recount might give people assurance that nothing, like the machines being hacked, took place.

“I think that all the citizens of American need to know that this election was legitimate and I don’t think it’s going to change the results,” Ritter said.

Greg Miller, of Sevastopol, insisted it would be near impossible for Door County's voting machines to be compromised.

Miller has served as a Door County poll worker in the past and explained that the voting machines are not hooked up to any system until the end of the night. At that point, a single machine is connected to a modem and calls in the results to the County Clerk’s office.

Lau confirmed that each municipality only has one machine that calls in the results at the end of night and only that machine is connected to any system.

svhernande@doorcountyadvocate,Samantha Hernandezon Facebook or 920-743-3321, ext. 4112.