Democrats seek recount volunteers
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Published: September 2, 2010
The unity tour by the Democratic candidates for governor continues. Five candidates ran for the party’s nomination, a primary in which Peter Shumlin is the apparent victor. But the margin of victory, less than 200 votes separates Shumlin from second-place finisher Doug Racine, was small enough that Racine has asked for a recount.
However, that has not kept the two, or the other three candidates, from collaborating both to criticize the sole Republican in the campaign, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, and to participate in fundraising and other campaign events together.
On Wednesday the five candidates asked for volunteers to help in that recount effort. Ordinarily, for instance in a recount between candidates of different parties, each side has volunteers overseeing vote counting to ensure accuracy and fairness. This time, in part to speed up the recount effort, the Democrats in the unusual primary recount have agreed to use the same observers.
There will still have to be a substantial number of volunteers, however. That’s in part because ballots from each county in the state are recounted, either by machine or by hand, at the local courthouse. That means there must be as many as 40 volunteers in each county found, a list which recount officials would like to start selecting from as early as Friday, according to the Democrats.
“In order to make this process happen as quickly as possible, all five of us have agreed to put out the call generally and nominate the volunteers together,” Shumlin said in a request for volunteers sent to his supporters.
Racine Campaign Manager Amy Shollenberger said in large part the decision for all five of the candidates to send out a message seeking mutually acceptable volunteers for the recount was an effort to speed the process along
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