County ready for presidential ballot recount

Hundreds of bags of ballots cast in the Nov. 8 presidential election were trucked Wednesday under a law enforcement escort from the Milwaukee County Courthouse to a south side warehouse in preparation for Thursday's start of a statewide recount, County Clerk Joe Czarnezki said.

Voters in the county's 19 municipalities cast 440,247 ballots for president in the election and the Board of Canvassers will decide Thursday morning if each of them will be recounted by machine or by hand, Czarnezki said at a Wednesday news conference.

Election Commission staff recommended using machines to quicken the pace of a recount expected to continue until the Dec. 12 deadline set by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, according to Czarnezki. Milwaukee County Sheriff's deputies provided Wednesday's escort and will secure the ballots 24-hours-day until the recount is completed.

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Around 130 workers hired by county communities are expected to pack into the City of Milwaukee Election Commission warehouse on S. Kinnickinnic Ave. beginning Thursday for the expected 10-day recount of ballots, County Election Director Julietta Henry. All of the workers will be paid $15 an hour, she said.

The city and its 50 tabulators are assigned one room in the warehouse to work through ballots cast in the city while tabulators from the other 18 municipalities are assigned an adjacent room. Each suburban municipality will work on a schedule posted on the county election commission website.

County clerks prepare for recount

They will share tables with one observer from the Green, Democratic and Republican parties. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, requested the recount of all ballots cast in Wisconsin for the office of president.

The public and media are allowed to watch the process. The county is providing box lunches for the workers each day, Czarnezki said.