Random thoughts about April 5, 2005

First, the the difference in the dedication to excellence between the Milwaukee polling place and the 2 Germantown districts to an accurate and correct canvass is staggering. Even the smooth as silk canvass of district #3 took 1 hour and 40 minutes to do. If what I saw at Lyon's park pavilion is an example of a "good crew" in the City of Milwaukee, I shudder to think what a bad crew of inspectors looks like.

Second, in the tallying of write-in for Supreme Court Justice (against Ann Walsh Bradley) there were 2 familiar names; Charles Sykes and Bill Pangman.

Third, Clearly the Germantown pool referendum (no new tax 56/44%) was the hot-button race for Germantown. There were 5033 ballots cast in Germantown for a 36.21% turn-out among registered voters. Of those 5033, only 22 people across the 4 districts failed to cast a vote on this referendum. This is a voting ratio of 99.56%. For superintendant there were 4,635 votes tallied for a paltry voting rate of only 92.09%.

Fourth, I do not think Jane Wilms or her deputy clerk, Christine Micka, get enough recognition for the work they do to make voting in Germantown such a pleasure. They gave every poll worker the chief inspector training. This is good sense in case the chief is ill, injured or otherise unavailable. Then both were on the job from 7:00 am (setup) until 10:15 pm (canvassing). Plus the next day is hectic because of the reporting to the Washington county clerk by 2:00 pm.

In summary:

For a municipality the character of the chief election official certainly sets the tone, character and, dare I say, legality of the election they supervise.