What's Up for the New Year Dunn County?
Three Days to Certify General Election in Dunn County - Revised Title IX that Passed in SDMA in September has Overturned-SDMA Strategic Planning in the Planning Stages
Well, we made it through the General Election, Thanksgiving, Christmas and in the first couple of weeks into the new year. For many of us, that is a major accomplishment, getting through all the major holidays and crossing the finish line into the new year. Hopefully. that has strengthened you to prepare for whatever lies ahead in the new year.
So, let’s talk about the General Election in Dunn County. As voters we may have had to wait in line to vote for either a short period of time or a lengthy period of time. If you live in the city, especially in ward 3 & 4 and 5 & 7, you probably were waiting in line for quite a while where same day registration was in high numbers. That is why it is highly recommended to register before election day verses on election day. This would definitely speed up the election process in the polling place. As for poll workers and observers, it was a stressful day for many due to high volume in voter registrations, tabulator jams, confusion with the ballots meaning reissuing of ballots and of ballots being spoiled, helping voters find out the correct polling location after finding out they are in the wrong polling place, along with many different questions from voters. Any valid incidents that occurred in the polling place is recorded on the Inspectors statement. Once the polls closed at 8 pm, it was time to switch gears to finish plugging in the absentee ballots that were left to tabulate into the tabulator. When the absentee ballots were completed being tabulated, prior to shutdown of tabulator, the tape totals were printed out consisting of votes tallied by the machine. Any ballots that had write-ins were hand counted. If any discrepancies are found in the process, the chief inspectors and poll workers need to work together to reconcile what the actual total of votes were in the ward/township. Once everyone is in agreement of the final totals, they sign all the required documents and the chief inspector calls in the results based on what was on the green tally sheet of final totals to the County Clerk.
So, what happens after Election Day. Well, the County Clerk posts the unofficial results of the General Election on the Dunn County Website the morning after the Election. The Board of Canvass then come together to officially certify Dunn County General Election on the Monday following the Election. The Board of Canvassers consists of one Democrat, one Republican and the County Clerk. They go through all 40 precincts (29 townships and 11 wards) tabulator tape totals and if needed the green tally sheet from each precinct along with the inspectors statement for further analysis when a discrepancy is found by the Board of Canvass. This process usually takes several hours before it becomes certified and official. I have been to many Board of Canvassers to observe certification of Dunn County’s Spring Primary, Spring General Election, Fall Primary and Fall General Election cycles since 2022 but this particular one took three days to figure out the official results for Dunn County. I missed Day One, November 11th but was an observer for Day Two and Three. During Day Two, November 12th, they went over the Town of Colfax discrepancy. The machine total was 778 while the hand count total was 776. After further analysis, by going over inspector statement from the Town of Colfax it was determined by the County Clerk that due to the ballot jam caused by the tabulator that the total vote count was off. As for the City of Menomonie Ward 1 & 2, there were some discrepancies including 18 missing absentee ballots along with 29 spoiled ballots that were in an envelope. The Board of Canvassers hand counted the Absentee Ballots with an overage of absentee ballots which led to being reconvened into Day Three which was on Wednesday, November 13th. It was decided to run all the ballots for Ward 1 & 2 through the tabulator. So on Day Three, Jess Boesl, Deputy County Clerk and Kate Martin, City Clerk helped out with feeding the ballots into the tabulator and documenting incidents on the inspectors statement that occurred during the recount of ballots for Ward 1 & 2. Also in the room was the Chief Inspector for Ward 1 & 2 along with some of the poll workers who worked at Ward 1 & 2 as well as from other locations on Election Night. There were other observers in the room as well. Before we began the process of recounting ballots in the tabulator, it was addressed about how the absentee ballots get documented upon arrival and Kate Martin mentioned they have a logging system in place to register all returned absentee ballots both by mail and in person. Andrew Mercil, County Clerk turned into an observer while ballots were being unsealed and opened to go into the tabulator for the recount. During the ballot recount using the tabulator we witnessed many jams which slowed down the process along with much frustration. Many of the jams occurred when the absentee ballots were being fed into the tabulator. By the way, the absentee ballots have creases in the ballots so they can fit in the envelope. The Chief Inspector also expressed how she was dealing with machine jams and malfunctions for 12 hours while working in Ward 1 & 2. So the City Clerk and Deputy County Clerk along with the two board of Canvassers had a taste of what the Chief Inspector went through on Election Night during Day Three of the Board of Canvass. It was also concerning when the Chief Inspector of Ward 1 & 2 mentioned out of the seven poll workers, two were experienced while the rest were all new poll workers. Especially when she instructed them to only take three absentee ballots at a time. Instructions were not followed. All the absentee ballots were tabulated after the polls closed. Discussions also swirled around from poll workers who were in the room along with the County Clerk about conducting a mock election and to standardize the election process. That might be worth pursuing. As we were pondering about the 29 missing spoiled ballots, the chief inspector for Ward 1 & 2 happened to find the 29 spoiled ballots which was in a manilla envelope in the bottom of the container. It was suggested to have the spoiled ballots in a colored envelope so it is easier to find. The spoiled ballots were hand counted and it contained 29 spoiled ballots plus one ballot that had no signature on envelope, making it 30 spoiled ballots. After four hours and nine minutes all of the ballots were accounted for which included absentee ballots and presidential race only ballots that were tallied into the Tabulator. This came out to 1708. The unofficial result was posted at 1709. After further analysis, the Chief Inspector remembered there was a double registration by a voter in which only one ballot was issued. So now you have an idea of what goes on behind the scenes after an election. Not exactly as smooth as you would expect it to be. We truly do need to streamline the whole election process in Dunn County. Something to ponder on as we head into the Spring Election cycle.
I remember the date, September 23rd, 2024 at 5:45 pm in which the action item on the SDMA agenda was to approve Policy Exhibit 113, Title IX Notice, which is the revised Title IX the Biden Administration was pushing into the public school system across the country. Unfortunately, only a few concerned empty nesters and grandparents showed up at this particular school board meeting. What shocked me was the fact that not a single parent was present to defend their children from this insane ideology that biological boys who think their a girl can have access to the girls restrooms, and in the girls locker room which includes the showers and can play in women’s sports is beyond mind-blowing. This highly controversial Title IX policy passed effortlessly. It was rubber stamped into SDMA’s school policy. All I can think of why it passed so easily was because of the federal funding that was awarded to those public school districts that approved of the revised policy verses if it did not pass they would be denied federal funding. The federal government has become really good of flashing that carrot stick around to get what they want to fit their agenda. Here is the link of September 23rd, 2024 SDMA School Board Meeting where Revised Title IX policy passed SDMA 09/23/24 School Board Meeting Thank goodness for more than 150,000 emails from parents all across the country who opposed this insane revised Title IX policy that caused the Department of Education to overturn it’s rulemaking. Here is the link of the article on the revised Title IX being overturned nationwide https://cbn.com/news/us/biden-admin-pulls-title-ix-rule-change-would-have-allowed-gender-confused-males-play-womens. And to make it official, here is the link of a formal withdrawal statement from the U.S. Department of Education of Notice of proposed rulemaking; withdrawal. It is my prayer and hope that parents in the School District Menomonie Area and all school districts throughout Dunn County play a more active role in what takes place where your children are being educated, the classroom environment they are being educated in and knowing the environment your children are in not only during school hours but after school hours as well, meaning extra curricular activities which includes sports. It is time to start paying attention to the policies and curriculum being implemented to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It all starts with parents being present at our school board meetings.
One more announcement in regards to SDMA and how parents and residents can get involved to help shape the future success of the students that are enrolled in the SDMA school district. They just finished up with in person listening sessions in which they worked with students, families, staff and community members to develop a new strategic plan for the 2025-2030 school year a week ago. I and my husband had the opportunity to participate in last Friday’s in-person listening session at Oaklawn Elementary in which I felt it was more of a brainstorming session of ideas in each of the pillars they presented to those who participated in the school library. Here is the current 2019-2024 Strategic Plan for SDMA as follows:
So now they are focusing on implementing a strategic plan for 2025-2030. So even though the in-person listening sessions have ended, come February, which is next month, watch for your mail or email to have the opportunity to complete the Strategic Plan Survey as another way to let your voices be heard. So here is another opportunity for the parents, grandparents and great grandparents to get involved with their children’s educational environment.
From One Dunn County Neighbor to Another - Cheers to New Beginnings!
Laurie J Christianson
Bulletin Board Moment:
Please click on the link below to learn more about Joyce Uhlir who is running for SDMA School Board on April 1st.
Joyce is Your Voice for SDMA School Board 2025
