"What I saw at the Michigan recount"

[Patriot Guard Rider]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028352561

Note: All emphasis is mine.

Star Member ehrnst (4,713 posts)

 
"What I saw at the Michigan recount"
https://medium.com/nick_sharp/what-i-saw-at-the-michigan-recount-7c46fdc87243#.l56g8zatz

On December 7, 2016, I volunteered as an observer with Recount Michigan 2016. I showed up at 9:00am sharp in the heart of Detroit, in heavily democratic Wayne County, Michigan.

It was a bloodbath.

I did not count a single vote during my entire first four-hour shift.

Trump’s legal team was there in force, circling the room like sharks. They were challenging everything, gumming up the works and disqualifying whole precincts.  I was only aware of a single Green Party attorney plus one law student in my (large) room. Many challenges had one or more Trump lawyers speaking with election officials, and no legal advocate present for the other side; they were simply outnumbered and outgunned.

Every recount table had 1–2 Trump observers present, each one holding written scripts to challenge every single precinct, regardless of the facts.

(Note: I am not a lawyer, the next two paragraphs are my understanding based on what I observed on site.)
When a precinct is challenged, everything is recorded in writing by the election officials present. If the challenge is obviously true, the precinct in question is deemed un-recountable, right there. The civic employees write a report, return everything to the box, seal the box, and move on to the next precinct, then the process of recording and unsealing a box begins again.

But, even if the challenge is clearly contrived, it still has to be recorded, on the spot. The civic employees must fill out a form, in longhand, and write up a report―also in longhand — before they can get back to work counting ballots.
I sat at my table for a full hour before our first box was even unsealed.

Around the time our first box was finally getting unsealed, an exasperated election official shouted an announcement to the room. It was a large room and there were many people in it — he would have needed to shout anyway — but his frustration was clear. He had the air of a normally calm civic bureaucrat trying to do his job and get the votes counted on time, but who had been pushed to the breaking point by Trump’s lawyers and their delay tactics.

The election official announced that Trump’s head lawyer had just filed a blanket challenge in Lansing. So, (here, I’m paraphrasing from memory) “All precincts have already been challenged. You don’t have to read your scripts anymore, we’re not writing down the challenges. If you still want to read them, go ahead and read them.” (Shouting louder) “But we’re not writing them down any more. If you tell us to write them down,” (He raised his arms) “We’re not gonna do it!”

Trump observers kept reading their challenges, and civic employees kept counting ballots, trying to concentrate on the count. A miscount of one in a thousand could (and did!) disqualify entire precincts from the recount. Thousands of votes and hours of counting were disqualified if one ballot in a thousand was missed amid the chaos in the room.

Why did Detroit and Wayne County — the bluest county in Michigan — have so many Republican lawyers present?
Where did all these Republican lawyers come from? They looked like they walked in straight out of a Brooks Brothers catalog, but they were not there to have a good time.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I wonder — were there similar swarms of Republican lawyers in the red counties, challenging everything?

Why did Detroit and Wayne County — the bluest county in Michigan — have so many Republican lawyers present?

You answered your own question. It's Detroit. You're just upset the lawyers were there to make sure the vote wasn't tainted.

[98ZJUSMC]

You answered your own question. It's Detroit. You're just upset the lawyers were there to make sure the vote wasn't tainted.

Exactly.

[fatboy]

Why did Detroit and Wayne County — the bluest county in Michigan — have so many Republican lawyers present?

A better question to ask is why are all of the mistakes in counting the original vote tally found in the bluest counties in the country? Are not democrats the ones doing the counting? If so, why do a recount? Are they unable to count?

[hippocritical]

They are asking the wrong question. They are outraged and demanding to know why the republicans were well organized and prepared.

Instead, they should be asking why the democrats were completely unprepared and unstaffed. It is not the "fault" of republicans that their people were trained and had a game plan, scripts prepared and enough observers to have one or two at each table. It's the fault of democrats that they did not.

Furthermore, they should be asking themselves why their own party didn't file the challenge and fund the recounts, and lawyer up.

[Mr Mannn]

They are asking the wrong question. They are outraged and demanding to know why the republicans were well organized and prepared.

Instead, they should be asking why the democrats were completely unprepared and unstaffed. It is not the "fault" of republicans that their people were trained and had a game plan, scripts prepared and enough observers to have one or two at each table. It's the fault of democrats that they did not.

Furthermore, they should be asking themselves why their own party didn't file the challenge and fund the recounts, and lawyer up.

Hi5.
I think the democrats are used to the GOP not challenging any of their lies at all. The rules are different with Trump. I hope future GOP candidates take note. Trump's fighting back against the lies is what won the election. Being a gentleman and refusing to defend yourself won't win sh!t.

[FunkyZero]

I can condense this dummys entire post:

"We are pissed because we were being supervised and couldn't pull off what we intended".
They knew full well what you assholes would do if not under strict supervision.

[freedumb2003b]

He had the air of a normally calm civic bureaucrat trying to do his job

Those words have never been assembled into a sentence before.

[miskie]

I can condense this dummys entire post:

"We are pissed because we were being supervised and couldn't pull off what we intended".
They knew full well what you assholes would do if not under strict supervision.

They seem to forget that Trump used float about the inner circles of the Democratic Elite. He knows how their game is played. Also, Trump fights using the same tactics and language one would see being employed by a Northeastern Union leader.

Why do you think he cut that swath straight through The Rust Belt ?

I'm starting to believe that Trump is the worst thing that could've happened to the DUmmies. - He is in every way, a 'Union Thug' - in this case however, 'Union' means The USA.

So what have the DUmmies done ? - They have gone full-on Joe McCarthy, and are equating Trump with Communist Russia.

[sharkhawk]

The election official lied, and was breaking the law.

The election official announced that Trump’s head lawyer had just filed a blanket challenge in Lansing. So, (here, I’m paraphrasing from memory) “All precincts have already been challenged. You don’t have to read your scripts anymore, we’re not writing down the challenges. If you still want to read them, go ahead and read them.” (Shouting louder) “But we’re not writing them down any more. If you tell us to write them down,” (He raised his arms) “We’re not gonna do it!”

Trump filed a petition to end the recount, he didn't "challenge all precincts".  The Trump lawyers and observers were there in case the petition failed and the recount would continue.  Each party is allowed election observers, and each side is allowed to make challenges.  The election officials are required to note all challenges.  To do otherwise could have made the recounts illegal. 

[FunkyZero]

They seem to forget that Trump used float about the inner circles of the Democratic Elite. He knows how their game is played. Also, Trump fights using the same tactics and language one would see being employed by a Northeastern Union leader.

Why do you think he cut that swath straight through The Rust Belt ?

I'm starting to believe that Trump is the worst thing that could've happened to the DUmmies. - He is in every way, a 'Union Thug' - in this case however, 'Union' means The USA.

So what have the DUmmies done ? - They have gone full-on Joe McCarthy, and are equating Trump with Communist Russia.

Couldn't have said it better.
Every day that goes by, I am warming up to the guy a little more. I'm still highly skeptical, but by God, he appears to be actually trying to keep his promises, and that's the part that has me bewildered. We aren't quite used to that and it defies political logic.
Damn, I love being so wrong about someone in this scope.

[BattleHymn]

TL;DR This DUmmie went to the bluest county in Michigan and expected to do a little bit of hoo-hah'ing with some ballots, and was cockblocked by Trump's trained team of attack lawyers. 

[Mr Mannn]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4022218/Green-Party-candidate-Jill-Stein-concedes-Michigan-recount-vows-fight-voter-reform-court-public-opinion.html

Green Party candidate Jill Stein concedes Michigan recount is over but vows to take fight over voter reform to 'court of public opinion'

By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 09:12 EST, 11 December 2016

today the recount ploy to overturn the election has FAILED. Trump wins again, and all it cost was a few lawyers.

[DUmpstruck]

Since the courts decided to stop the Michigan recount, all I can imagine is Mrs. Corpio running around crying into his purple drank.   

Now Silly Jilly wants all her money back including that for the precincts that were counted before the count was stopped.  So far she is being told to pound sand.

This should keep the primitives in stolen election stories for at least the next year or two.

[samspade]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028352561

Note: All emphasis is mine.

You answered your own question. It's Detroit. You're just upset the lawyers were there to make sure the vote wasn't tainted.

I call BS on the article from demonunderground as to what happened.

[hippocritical]

It sounds moderately accurate. A couple things they neglected to add:

1. Each campaign (trump, hillary, stein) was allowed up to two observers at a table. So where they appear to be complaining about that, in fact they are saying the trump observers played by the rules. If they were complaining that there were more than two trump observers at a table, they'd have a valid complaint - but the burden would be on the Jill Stein observers to challenge that.

2. They make it sound like if the counters were off by one after counting thousands of sheets of paper, the precinct was unrecountable and tossed out (letting the original election results stand). What really happens: The counter has a stack of the ballots in front of them. They pick up one, and say ONE. Then it goes to a pile of counted ballots. They do this til they count to 25. 25 ballots go in the pile. Then they start a new count to 25, and those get put into a new pile, stacked perpendicular to the first. So in each stack, they only have to count to 25 without messing up. And since it's out loud and they in theory have up to 6 people observing, if the count gets off, you get a chorus of people correcting it immediately. It's not like they are silently counting one thousand five hundred and eighty six, and then get distracted and the whole precinct is crossed off.

3. If the count is off, the precinct isn't immediately deemed unrecountable. They get to go through a second time to find the problem. And now since the ballots are in smaller counted stacks, it's theoretically easier to pin point where the problem happened. If you are counting a stack that should have 25 and you count 24 or 26, you found the problem. It's only after two full counts with up to 6 observers don't match the poll books that the precinct is considered unrecountable.