It's a fact that the routine, normal in-job checking is what found the missing votes - the results the AP reported weren't certified for a REASON. The proper checks hadn't been made yet.
Now, you could call it incompetent if the votes had been certified with the Brookfield votes missing, but not at what's essentially only the halfway point for the job. I get that the AP and the rest of the media would be peeved because they rely on those numbers, but they rely on those numbers in order to get the news out first, as it were, and there's an inherent risk of error in that. It's not the clerk's fault that they feel a need to rush to reporting.
As for a recount, when Kloppenburg was down by 700 votes or so in the AP count on election night, I was saying she'd be nuts not to ask for a recount. When Prosser was down by 200, I REALLY thought he'd be nuts not to ask for one. Either of those would've been free recounts, again for a good reason - small mistakes can change the outcome, and it's a lot of data being collected in a short time - the exact circumstances under which small mistakes are most common and accumulate easily. Under the present circumstances, even though it won't be free because the margin wound up being a factor of at least 10 larger than either of the above points, I totally understand that Kloppenburg would want a recount. No reason she shouldn't ask for one if she's willing to pay - and I'm fairly certain with the closeness of the vote that she's got the supporters to pay it for her.
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Date: 2011-04-11 04:22 am (UTC)From:Now, you could call it incompetent if the votes had been certified with the Brookfield votes missing, but not at what's essentially only the halfway point for the job. I get that the AP and the rest of the media would be peeved because they rely on those numbers, but they rely on those numbers in order to get the news out first, as it were, and there's an inherent risk of error in that. It's not the clerk's fault that they feel a need to rush to reporting.
As for a recount, when Kloppenburg was down by 700 votes or so in the AP count on election night, I was saying she'd be nuts not to ask for a recount. When Prosser was down by 200, I REALLY thought he'd be nuts not to ask for one. Either of those would've been free recounts, again for a good reason - small mistakes can change the outcome, and it's a lot of data being collected in a short time - the exact circumstances under which small mistakes are most common and accumulate easily. Under the present circumstances, even though it won't be free because the margin wound up being a factor of at least 10 larger than either of the above points, I totally understand that Kloppenburg would want a recount. No reason she shouldn't ask for one if she's willing to pay - and I'm fairly certain with the closeness of the vote that she's got the supporters to pay it for her.