47th Assembly recount could end up in court
Photo by Lyn Jerde / Capital Newspapers
Catherine O'Brien, left, a member of the Columbia County Board of Canvass, draws a random vote from among absentee ballots cast in the town of Springvale, as County Clerk Sue Moll holds the bag of ballots. The drawdown was the result of an absentee ballot being ruled invalid on Wednesday, the third day of the 47th District Assembly race recount.
By Lyn Jerde, Capital Newspapers
An attorney representing the campaign of Democrat Trish O'Neil said Wednesday it's likely that the 47th Assembly District contest will end up being decided in the courts.
Milwaukee lawyer Michael Maistelman made his comments as the third full day of a recount wound down — and a fourth day, and possibly a fifth day, were being anticipated.
Maistelman said irregularities in deciding whether absentee ballots should be allowed or rejected, and possible differences in the way this decision is made among the three counties in the 47th District, might require taking the recount to court.
"We may have to have a judge look at all those ballots," he said.
The canvass boards in Columbia and Dane counties are giving no information about possible changes in the margin of votes between Ripp and O'Neil. But Maistelman said he believes that, between the two counties, O'Neil may have gained about 12 votes.
"But we can't know for sure until it's finished," he said.
The initial tally in the race between O'Neil and Republican Keith Ripp had Ripp leading by a 28-vote margin, or about 0.09 percent of the more than 32,000 votes cast.
Whether Maistelman will challenge the recount in court depends on whether or not the final numbers favor O'Neil, he acknowledged.
The recount was completed in one day Monday in Sauk County, where only two precincts, representing about 800 votes, are included in the 47th District.
In Dane and Columbia counties, however, there was no end in sight as of Wednesday evening.
Dee Ace, who works in the Dane County clerk's office in Madison, said the board of canvass hopes to finish the recount by today, but the county isn't even close to finalizing a tally.
"They've been upstairs sequestered for the last three days," Ace said.
That's pretty much what's going on in Columbia County, too.
Volunteer Jan Haupt, an election inspector for the town of Lodi, said she's planning on being at work all day today and much of Friday. The board will reconvene at 8 a.m. today in the Columbia County Courthouse.
Maistelman, who has been present at the Columbia County recount continuously since it began Monday, said he believes the canvass has turned up numerous absentee ballots — some of them requested by fax or e-mail — that did not include the required signature of the voter or other information that state law requires for verification of absentee ballots.
In all cases when an absentee ballot is rejected for not meeting legal requirements, Maistelman said, a random absentee ballot should be drawn from the precinct where the rejected ballot was cast, and that ballot should not be counted in the vote total.
Although absentee ballots are separated from those cast on Election Day, the drawdown from absentee ballots would have to be random because usually there is no way to determine which specific ballot was cast by the voter whose absentee ballot was ruled invalid.
Maistelman said he believes this procedure is not being followed consistently in Columbia County, and possibly not in the other two counties. As a result, he said, there could be ballots that should have been rejected and subjected to a drawdown, but were not.
County Clerk Sue Moll said there had been several incidents Wednesday in which a random ballot was drawn down because an absentee voter was ruled disqualified.
One of the incidents involved an overseas voter from the town of Springvale who requested, received and cast an absentee ballot, but poll officials could not find the required accompanying documentation such as the voter's signature, address information, age verification and a witnessâ?? signature and address. All of this information is typically written on the outside of an official envelope in which most absentee ballots are returned, though the information can be submitted by other methods of written communication.
Moll said the clerk at the voter's precinct knew that the voter had cast a ballot for federal offices only, meaning that the ballot would not have been a factor in the 47th District race, which was for a state office. In that situation, she said, the board of canvass could have opted not to do a drawdown if representatives from the candidates had no objection.
However, objections from both Ripp's and O'Neil's representatives prompted the board to draw a ballot randomly and not count it, she said. No one was supposed to look at which candidates were marked on the drawn-down ballot before all the votes from the precinct were tabulated.
Particularly problematic, Maistelman said, are absentee ballots that were requested by e-mail, in which the accompanying information is also submitted by e-mail. A signature submitted by e-mail should not be considered valid, he said, because it's too easy to falsify.
The recount total will be official when each of the counties submits its findings to the Government Accountability Board, the state body that oversees elections.
The 47th Assembly District in Sauk County includes the village and town of Merrimac, as well as the town of West Point and much of Columbia County and the town of Roxbury and much of Dane County.
Ripp, 46, is a town of Dane supervisor and president of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board. O'Neil, 56, is a registered nurse and former president of the Columbus School Board. The Election Day ballot also included an independent candidate, Dennis Hruby, who collected 1,386 votes. The three are vying to succeed Rep. Eugene Hahn, R-Cambria, who did not seek re-election after eight terms.
O'Neil requested the recount last week. By state law, the recount costs her nothing because the margin between her and Ripp in the canvassed ballot count was less than 0.5 percent.
Recent related articles:
Nov. 11: O'Neil to file for recount after canvass in 47th District
Nov. 6: O'Neil plans to seek recount
Nov. 5: ELECTION RESULTS: Local and national races
Oct. 15: 47th Assembly candidates spar at Lodi forum