COMMISSIONERS AWAIT MONDAY DEADLINE FOR NORMAN RECOUNT REQUEST IN MUNI RACE

By Michael Horne
[UPDATE: Friday, February 23rd, 2007 3:48 p.m. -- The Norman campaign has hired Atty. Michael Maistelman to advance its cause. This would make it very likely that a recount will be requested, although an attorney with the firm said the decision has not yet been made. The deadline for filing is 5 p.m. Monday. -- Ed.]
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The clock is ticking for the campaign of Jeffrey B. Norman to ask for a recount – some might simply call it a count – of the results of Tuesday’s primary election for Judge, Branch 3 of Milwaukee Municipal Court.

That’s according to City of Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Sue Edman, who said the recount, to be performed by her staff, would cost somewhere between $1,500 to $3,000.

The commission certified the canvass of the votes Wednesday, finding that Jennifer Havas (4,460) and Phil Chavez (4,012) would advance to the April 3^rd general election. This was duly noted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article this morning. The article did not mention the possibility of a recount.

In a telephone interview this morning, Edman provided a correct tally of votes Norman has been credited with in what was the largest write-in citywide campaign in memory. The 3,023 votes leaves Norman 990 short of displacing Chavez from the number two spot on the ballot. Chavez, as Norman noted yesterday, is the endorsed candidate of the Journal Sentinel, which operates its editorial department as an entirely separate entity from its news reporting segment.

Norman hopes to find his votes among the 1,728 ballots that were not marked for a candidate whose name was on the ballot, and may or may not have Norman’s name written in, or affixed by sticker, but not counted because of the absence of a mark completing an arrow next to the candidate’s written-in or stickered name. There is no way at this time to find out what name or names are written in on these ballots. Additionally, Edman says, many voters “chose not to vote” in the race. Even if every ballot had a write-in name, it is not certain that Norman’s was the name. “People vote for themselves,” Edman says. [This was referred to at the canvass as the “Mickey Mouse Effect,” named after a perennial write-in candidate who has been a factor in electoral politics for generations.

Edman said she did not know what percentage of “Mickey Mouse” and self-voting is typical in a Milwaukee election. We’ll find out soon enough if a recount is requested. Mr. Mouse, however, rarely faced a well-organized write-in campaign in past elections.

The Milwaukee Police Association, which does not like to waste its endorsements, sent out a Norman sticker to all of its members, and otherwise worked to support Brother Norman.

Edman and others, including Assistant City Attorney Melanie R. Swank, (Marquette Law, ’94) who staffed the meeting of the commissioners, say there is much unknown at this stage of proceedings. For example, if Norman showed up this afternoon with a check to commence the recount, could Edman order it on her own call, or must she await the action of the commissioners? “I don’t know – I’ll have to check the law,” Edman said.

Attorney Swank said much the same in response to commissioners’ questions yesterday. “I have to read the law,” she said in response to commissioners’ questions on a jurisdictional question. She left City Hall shortly after the meeting adjourned, heading north across E. Kilbourn Avenue at 4 p.m., clutching a brief of papers and savoring a cigarette after a long day’s work.

Meanwhile, other allegations have been stirred up in the race, which has attracted more attention after the vote than it had before, excepting in the pages of the daily newspaper

Ald. Mike McGee, Jr. issued a press release Tuesday saying Election Commission workers are, in his opinion, “not just passive observers but actually complicit participants in voter fraud.”He charged that a female poll watcher approached him and other voters asking if they wanted to vote for Norman at the polling place at St. James United Methodist Church. He said sample ballots bearing Norman’s name were seen at polling locations including Ben Franklin School, M. L. King School, and Green Bay Avenue School.

McGee also charged that stickers bearing Norman’s name were left behind at polling places. Norman, for his part, cited instances in which election workers had voters remove stickers and write in Norman’s name. They failed, in some instances, he says, to also instruct these voters to complete the arrow. These votes were very likely not counted, but would appear in the recount.

Edman responded by saying “the last thing I want to do is to deny votes to Jeff Norman.”