Last certification... until the next one

I came to the re-certification session on my bike and passed a mammoth 2 story high satellite truck from Channel 5 parked on State and Elm St.  Here' (left) is the intrepid Channel 5eporter , Stewart Ledbetter, with a tiny camera taking a picture of Jack Lindley, the GOP "canvasser"  (Ledbetter jokingly asked him to stop grinning like he'd just left a tavern.)  Lindley was there as a canvasser to certify the vote.  The rest of the press showed up,  the Dem canvasser, Condos the Secretary of State and his intrepid Elections Division head, Kathy Sheele.





This session was supposed to be a formality fixing their screwup by adding 9 votes from Hardwick and 6 from Walden.   But when it came to signing on the dotted line, Jack Lindley instead delivered this polemic:  (this may have been why he was grinning beforehand):

Someone asked Sheele to summarize what the GOP stalwart had said. She replied, He basically called us incompetent assholes."  He accused the office of not being able to organize a two car funeral let alone an election with a thousand or two write-ins.  He also darkly accused the Dems and Progs of "colluding".  He wasn't at all specific on this score.  Maybe Shumlin will throw Abbott a bone for running as his surrogate;  time will tell.  

The system over there does seem a little loosely wound.  The directions on the ballot contradict those in the law but Sec. Condos is too stubborn to hear of changing the directions which would take him about one microsecond.  Apropos of nothing, he says the ballot has been like this for years and that in California the write-in voter must fill in the little oval to be counted.  He thinks the vote counters need more training.  

So the official vote count now is 371 Abbott vs 370 Smith.  Annette went right from the canvassing today to submit a petition demanding a recount.  The recount will take place in Montpelier toward the middle of next week and we are allowed to have counters or observers present.  Write in if you are interested in watching slow motion democracy in action.  Given how loosey-goosey everything has been up to now, we can only hold on to our hats for the next episode.