Huge turnout for mid-terms

By Colleen Gundlach

It was a mid-term election like none other in the collective memories of Norfolk residents. Most mid-term voters are apathetic, resulting in, as a general rule, a low turnout. That was not the case with this November’s race. A whopping 70 percent of the town’s voters came out to cast their ballots for a new governor and other state and federal positions.

Of the 1,143 voters registered in Norfolk, the party with the highest percentage turnout was the Republicans, with 88 percent of their 222 registered voters, 195 in total, who voted using electronic voting machines. Next in line were the unaffiliateds with a 77 percent turnout, or 347 of a total 452 registered, while the Democrats turned out 248 of their 457 registered voters, at roughly 54 percent. But the win was in the actual number of votes, not the percentages, and the Democrats won every seat on the Norfolk ballot.

Nov. 7 was a long and tiring day for the town clerk, registrars of voters, election moderator and other poll workers, but when the polls closed, their work was just beginning. The day after the election, the secretary of state announced that there would be a mandatory recount of the votes for the state representative seat for the 64th District, a race between incumbent Brian Ohler and newcomer Maria Horn. With less than a half of 1 percent difference between the two candidates, an automatic recount was triggered. It never happened, though, because on Wednesday, two days after the election, Norfolk amended its report to the state to show 12 more votes for Horn than originally reported. These votes made the mandatory recount no longer necessary.

But that wasn’t the end of the story, because other towns were also amending their numbers, and on Nov. 14, Ted Bromley of the secretary of state’s office reported that there would indeed be a recount. He said that because the towns had only recently amended their numbers with the state “in such a way as to bring the vote total difference between the winning and losing candidate within the margin of a recanvass,” a recount would be held. He chided the towns, saying, “I feel it is important to remind you all of the statutory duty imposed upon the town clerk, registrar of voters and head moderator. . . . Had this statutory duty been complied with, a recanvass would have been identified by Friday, Nov. 9.” By regulation, the recanvass should have been finished by Nov. 14, but Bromley extended the deadline to Nov. 19 to accommodate the 64th District race. When the dust had settled, the final votes district-wide were 5,877 for Horn and 5,787 for Ohler.

“Voting is a process,” says Norfolk Town Clerk Linda Perkins. “It can’t be rushed.” She explains that at 8 p.m. when the polls close on voting night, everyone wants the final numbers right away, but it’s not that simple. Totals from the electronic voting machines are easy to obtain, but to complete the count of absentee votes, overseas ballots and the votes of those who registered on election day often takes much longer. The town clerk is responsible for documenting the absentee ballots and the election moderator has responsibility for recording all other votes. In addition, the state requires that all data be filled in on electronic forms and sent at close of polls, at the end of a long and busy day. The moderator strives for accuracy of data sent.

Election-day registration (EDR) can cause a bottleneck at the polls as well as in counting the votes. EDR numbers are counted separately from regular ballots, which adds to the manpower and paperwork needed to track the numbers. The town clerk suggests that citizens read and respond to the election canvass. This facilitates the updating and accuracy of data, especially if the citizen does not vote in every election. “The first responsibility lies with the voter,” she says. “Voting is a process with a number of steps that end in voting accuracy. Every vote counts, as was proven this year.”