New county tally close to initial vote count

BY KEVIN BONESKE

REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

The presidential recount taking place throughout Wisconsin concluded Wednesday in Oneida County with only “very minute changes” from the results initially tallied in the Nov. 8 fall general election, said county clerk Mary Bartelt.

“For doing a recount, we really weren’t off by much,” Bartelt said.

She said much of the difference was attributed to how scattering and write-in votes had been recorded in the presidential race, while some absentee ballots marked with a No. 2 pencil instead of a black pen didn’t register when scanned due to the pencil marks wearing off.

“I still believe in our voting machines,” said Bartelt, who noted in the future using a black pen rather than a pencil will be the recommended way to mark a ballot.

The recount that took place at the Oneida County Courthouse involved the Board of Canvassers using a combination of counting the ballots by hand and optical scanning equipment.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had sought and paid for the recount in all of the state’s 72 counties, which were given until 8 p.m. Dec. 12 to complete the recount that began Dec. 1.

The Republican presidential/vice presidential ticket of Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence, who narrowly carried the state and also had the most votes in Oneida County, picked up 15 more votes countywide after the recount – from 12,117 to 12,132.

Bartelt said the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, who came in second, added six votes to their county total from 8,103 to 8,109.

Of the other presidential/vice presidential candidates initially receiving more than 100 votes in the county, the Libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld stayed the same at 751 votes and the Green Party ticket with Stein and Ajamu Baraka picked up eight more votes from 191 to 199.

Bartelt said the presidential vote total that changed the most after the recount was registered write-in candidate Evan McMullin increasing from 38 to 63 votes.