The exact percentage is disputed, but its certain a major part of life involves showing up. Sounds basic enough, but as the opponents of Maines marijuana-legalization measure demonstrated this week, being merely present is no guarantee.
Question 1 appeared to win approval by less than one percentage point on Election Day, or by a little more than 4,000 votes. The tiny margin of victory allowed opponents to trigger a recount at no cost to them if they requested itand so they did what any sore loser would do.
Now, in order to determine if Maine was the fourth state to legalize adult-use marijuana on Election Day, representatives from both the yes and the no campaigns must show up to volunteer and count ballots.
And though it was the opposition campaign who called for the recount, the opposition campaign had a hard time showing upwhich is slowing down the very process they demanded, according to the Portland Press-Herald.
Maine uses paper ballots, which means cannabis legalization is on hold under roughly 750,000 ballots are hand-counted, a process that can take more than a month. Most of the counting is done by volunteers, so in order for a recount to proceed, campaigns are asked to provide 10 volunteers, elections officials told the newspaper. A volunteer from each side is matched with an elections worker, and then each team of three gets to counting, with the idea that theyll come to a number all three can agree on.
The recount began Monday, but for the first three days of counting, there werent enough anti-legalization volunteers to go around, the newspaper reported, leading elections workers with the Secretary of States Office to fill in.
Theres no requirement that the campaign requesting the recount help with the effort, you seethe state merely asks if they cant lend a hand.
After shortages all week, a sufficient number of volunteers was at last scraped together by Wednesday afternoon, according to the newspaper. Nevertheless, the episode is predictably driving the Yes on 1 side nuts.
That is, quite frankly, silly, said David Boyer, campaign manager for the Yes on 1 effort, in comments to the Portland Press-Herald. The whole point is to ensure the integrity of the vote and they cant be bothered to do that.
Apparently, the No on 1 side didnt inform the state that theyd be short-handed until late Sunday night, leading to a hiccup Monday morning. By contrast, the Yes on 1 side has a full contingent of countersand theyre even paying for their gas and lunches. To that, the No side responds that theyre all grassroots volunteers with full-time jobs, lacking in big campaign funds.
The recount is expected to cost the state at least $500,000, a bill incurred mostly by the Maine State Police as it drives from town ...
