Exit Pollsters Shut Down Again in Waukesha

[Yon_Yonson]

By Brad Friedman on 8/9/2011 6:17pm
Exit Pollsters Shut Down Again in Waukesha
Other reports good, poll turnout said very high...


The polls in Wisconsin closed moments ago. So far, so good in the state's unprecedented recall elections today, at least according to the bulk of media reports throughout the day. Turnout was reportedly very high, nearing or even exceeding rates from the 2008 Presidential election in some areas. "It's astronomically high," according to Matt Rothschild, Editor of The Progressive in Madison, WI, with whom I was just on air with on Santa Fe Public Radio's KSFR to discuss today's recalls.

The contests in six state Senate districts could mean removal from office for the GOP Senators facing recall today following their support of Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union agenda. If Democrats take three of those seats --- and hold onto the two Democrat seats up for recall next Tuesday, they would retake the majority in the Senate. The Assembly, the Senate and the Governor's office all went to Republicans in last November's wave election.

While reports of problems with electronic voting systems frequently don't come to light until after polls close --- sometimes days and even weeks later --- we've heard of very few problems so far at least. With most of the voters in the state today voting on hand-marked paper ballots, voters shouldn't get held up by malfunctioning machines. Even in cases where the op-scanners fail to work --- and that has been the case, reportedly, in at least one ward in Fond du Lac --- voters can vote and their ballots can be tallied later by a different computer.

That WI doesn't bother to check any of the op-scanned ballots by hand to assure the machines are tallying them correctly is a different problem entirely, but one we discussed in our item earlier today and, depending on what results look like tonight, may need to discuss again later.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8661

[tcaudilllg]

1. Democracy won't take Waukesha.

You'll need something else. Idiots.

[54anickel]

2. This was my exit polling place...but I was on the late shift so all the nasty

stuff happened to my team mates before I arrived. I found this part interesting...

"According to Castleman, the police said that the Village of Butler had gotten a "special directive from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities," to keep them outside of the 100 foot perimeter. Castleman notes that the League "is not even an authoritative body and certainly has no jurisdiction over elections.""

Never heard of the League of WI Municipalities before. It came up while I were talking with teammates yesterday, but we got distracted and this article just reminded me of it again. I wanna dig into this one a little more. Sounds like another front group for privatizing our munis.

The exit polling was a great experience. Most people were friendly and more than willing to participate. There were a few nasties, but I tried not to take them as a reflection of the majority of the community of Butler. Hey, we all know some a$$holes.

[PeaceNikki]

3. What other polling places in Waukesha County were covered?

And did your data fall in line with results?

Also, in reading this report, it's notable that the GAB went to bat for you guys, no?

[54anickel]

4. I'm not sure how many places were exit polled. I can probably find out if you're

that interested. My understanding was that it was a majority of the polls though. Our data was obviously incomplete from basically being shutdown until 11:30 and then the distance we were kept at made it nearly impossible to get a large sampling. That said, there were nearly 600 votes cast and we only were able to poll 126(? think that's right) The results were exactly tied 63(?) each for Pasch and Darling. I can't find the results for the individual precincts anywhere so I don't even know how well our polling reflected the actual. I doubt it was as evenly split since we missed so many of the voters and this only works when you get a really wide sampling.
I'm hoping we are all filled in on how this went throughout the state by the Election Defense Alliance once they're done analyzing the results.

Party affiliation was a 3 way split 43 Dems, 46 Reps and the rest fell into the "other" category where they checked Other, Prefer not to State, No Affiliation or left it unmarked.

Kevin K from the GAB showed up, and he attempted to smooth things over but could only get us within 30 ft of the entrance which made the task nearly impossible. You had to holler across the lot to people coming out, people going in thought you were calling out to them or would go in and complain that they were being harrassed. Out team leader was absolutely awesome though, as the article states and she made some of the best inroads with the poll workers and their supervisor so that things will no doubt be much smoother and hopefully a bit more welcoming the next time around. Butler was tough during the recall elections as well. I'm guessing this League of Municipalities fed into that somehow. That said, many of the voters were enthusiastic and would like to see more of this sort of polling and double check of the system...even Republican voters.

[PeaceNikki]

5. Thanks for your hard work!!

Sounds like you guys covered a lot of ground which is awesome!! I'm sorry to hear that group made you lose valuable time. I'm glad to hear that the GAB and Kennedy himself helped you out.

[54anickel]

6. Thanks, Ya, GAB is slowly coming around. There are those in my group that still do not

trust Kennedy, then again the feeling may very well be mutual. But all in all he tried to be helpful. We all need to get along "cuz we ain't goin' nowhere". He sent back an assistant to get some documentation on how un-userfriendly the place was for voting...Poor signage, poor traffic pattern, measuring door width. The guy actually took a picture of one of the cops attempting chase off poll observers that were standing just outside the door of the building getting some air. They had only been there for about 2 minutes.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

13. He has to put on a good show now and then

To make it appear he is upholding the "accountability" part of the GAB. His general actions are quite the opposite.

[54anickel]

7. Final result was 397 to 200 for Darling in my precinct. The Waukesha County results are

now posted.
http://www.waukeshacounty.gov/uploadedFiles/Media/PDF/Elected_Officials/County_Clerk/Election_Results/20110809_recall.pdf

[PeaceNikki]

8. Thanks, yeah, I saw the posted totals, I am curious how the exit polls compared.

I imagine that you folks will compile and report on that.

Thanks again for all of your hard work!! :hi:

[54anickel]

9. We'd need to hit 70% compliance for them to be accurate. Still waiting to hear back

on how well the other precincts did. I will post if/when I find out more. I am hoping that the national Election Defense Alliance continues to recruit locals to participate in elections across the nation.

[Yon_Yonson]

10. Has the EDA issued their final results on the exit polls?

If they have where can one go to see them?

[54anickel]

15. Posted this further down...the results are in. Here's the website:

http://electiondefensealliance.org/

[Yon_Yonson]

16. Thank you, I was at Baraboo and I did not want to comment till I saw the final numbers

The initial numbers I saw were flip flopped from the election results announced by the Media and I figured WTF! I had not realized that Baraboo was just one of the towns polled in District 14. I see the inconclusive numbers now, it was a good start and will voluntee again as an exist pollister.

Thanks EDA for letting me paticipate.

[midnight]

11. I wonder what the numbers would of looked like if the exit pollers who were

working the earlier shift had not been denied for several hours before the Gab was able to assist? Some people were under the impression that pollsters were doing things incorrectly... Did the shift before you indicate they had done things wrong?

[Yon_Yonson]

12. Not much out there on these exit pollsters but I did find this from Baraboo

Recall attracts voters, exit polls
By Brian D. Bridgeford | Posted: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 3:30 am

Voters filled Baraboo-area polling places Tuesday as ballots were cast to decide whether state Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo, would replace incumbent Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon.

At West Kindergarten Center, voters faced inquiries from an exit polling group, which the city clerk said acted within state election rules.

Early Tuesday the flow of voters was high enough at East Elementary School that the line stretched out to the street, and Baraboo Alderman Gene Robkin said he was initially concerned this might discourage some people from staying to cast ballots.

However, poll workers quickly resolved the issue by splitting the voter list and creating two lines so voters could sign in faster.

Outside West, voters faced inquiries from volunteers with a nationwide group called the Election Defense Alliance. They passed out a "Wisconsin Citizens' Written Exit Poll."

The single sheet asked voters to state their party affiliation and mark whether they voted for Olsen or Clark, and whether they voted in 2008.

Baraboo resident Rose Lee said she didn't like being confronted by the pollsters and voiced her concerns to them. She said she didn't know how the record of her vote would be used. "I'm very unhappy that someone out here is asking who you voted for," Lee said.

Volunteer Aram Donabedian said EDA is a nonpartisan group trying to make a record of how people voted at West School, a polling place in Pardeeville and three other recall election locations around Wisconsin.

"Our purpose here is to make sure there is continuity between what the electronic ballot counting system (reports) and what we find on the exit poll," he said.

Donabedian admitted there could be problems with the exit poll's tally, because people could simply refuse to participate or write something different on the exit poll than what they wrote on the ballot. He noted a written statement at the top of the polling sheet asks people to fill out the poll the same way they filled out their ballots.

"There's always going to be some inaccuracy and we planned for that," he said. "We hope people are signing the exit poll honestly."

City Clerk Cheryl Giese said she received several calls from voters unsure whether the exit polling was legal. When she visited the West polling station earlier, she said, exit pollers were staying on the grass and only approaching people after they cast their ballots.

http://www.wiscnews.com/baraboonewsrepublic/news/article_7ca30e58-c2fc-11e0-8008-001cc4c03286.html

[54anickel]

14. Results from EDA----we need to promote greater participation from both sides of the aisle in these

polls. This was a great start though.

http://electiondefensealliance.org/

[midnight]

17. to draw public awareness to the very disquieting realities of concealed, computerized vote counting

(for example, many still erroneously assume that because they vote on paper, their votes and all votes are “safe,” even though in 99%+ of cases those ballots will never be examined and the optical scanner could easily be programmed to record a result radically different from what is indicated by the voters of their ballots);


Thank you for this info...