Carpooling to Vote Recounts?

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I imagine that many of us here on GMD are planning to volunteer for the Democratic Primary recount beginning on Wednesday at 9:00.

Would anyone be interested in carpooling?

More beneath the cut.

I am going to the recount on Wednesday in Chittenden county, and although I can take the bus, it would be nice if I didn’t have to get up quite as early as I will have to to walk down to the nearest CCTA station and wait for the bus to arrive. If anyone lives or goes by the Essex Junction area and would be willing to give me a ride, I’d be happy to give them some gas money or buy lunch or something.

It also occurs to me that other GMDers may be interested in carpooling, and if so, this thread could work handily for those also wishing to save gas (and polar bears!) and wanting to carpool to the Chittenden county or other recounts.

2 thoughts on “Carpooling to Vote Recounts?”

  1. I’ll be going to a location that is within walking distance, but I know many GMD readers will want to take you up on this, so I’m moving this up to our “Recommended” bar.

  2. The Times Argus is reporting that, particularly in some of the smaller counties, it appears there will be a shortage of volunteers and, even more so now many volunteers have begun to drop out of the process due to their not understanding how involved it would be (here):

    […]

    Recounts are done in the county courthouses, not in the polling places where votes are tallied on election night, and in the more populous counties there will likely be plenty of volunteers, although the exact numbers are not yet known.

    However, in some of the smaller counties clerks are finding it difficult to get personnel. Four-person teams are still needed for each set of vote counters and another four-member group is needed to oversee the process of tallying up the votes. Roughly 76,000 votes were cast in the Democratic primary for governor.

    Tina de la Bruere, superior court clerk in Orleans County, said Tuesday she originally had a list of 20 volunteers, enough to staff the required four-member table of observers and several four-person teams of vote counters. By Tuesday that list had been reduced to a dozen, and at least one of those was unable to make it, she said.

    With both machine-tabulated ballots and hand-count precincts, “I felt I needed a minimum of 16 people,” she said.

    Because of the potential shortfall of volunteers, some volunteers may be moved from more densely populated counties to smaller counties where needed, according to Peter Shumlin’s campaign. […]

    […]

    Claire Mee, the Washington County Superior Court clerk who is overseeing both her county’s recount and helping Crawford coordinate the statewide effort, said she and other administrators are also dealing with unfamiliarity with the process.

    “This is new for most of us,” she said.

    Many of the original list of more than 600 volunteers have dropped out now that they have learned they must commit to at least one full day of counting ballots and preferably more, according to Mee.

    “They did not realize how long the commitment could be,” she said. “We have had quite a few calls from people who did not realize it was that big a commitment.”

    […]

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