It was only a few days after the election was over and it had been announced that Question 1 had passed in Maine when the opposition, the No on 1 campaign, came out to say that they planned to request a recount. Question 1 won the election by less than 5,000 votes, and since that was definitely a margin of less than 1.5%, the state was obligated to honor the request for the recount – which will end up costing the state weeks’ worth of time and around $500,000, most of which is only to cover the cost of having the ballots from around the state brought by police to Augusta where the recount is currently taking place.
As a part of keeping the recount as fair as possible, the state asked for 10 volunteers from both sides of the campaign, and they also appointed 10 people from the secretary of state’s office to participate in the recount. They would be separated into 10 groups of 3 – but unfortunately the No on 1 campaign was not able to provide a full list of 10 volunteers by the time they were supposed to get started on Monday. By Wednesday they had finally come up with a list of volunteers, but two of them were unable to show up due to being unable to attain child care and bad weather.
In order to not put further delay on the recount, the Yes on 1 campaign offered up additional volunteers in order to keep things moving. This is certainly unorthodox and generally members of the staff at the secretary of state’s office would be pitching in – but they have already been offering up additional employees to fill the spots this far. However, it does appear that they have decided that the count can move forward, even with Yes on 1 volunteers joining the recount in place of members of their opposition.
“That is, quite frankly, silly. The whole point is to ensure the integrity of the vote and they can’t be bothered to do that,” David Boyer, campaign manager for Yes on 1 said. “What are we doing here?”
So far the “no” side of the question has only gained an extra 26 votes – but the proponents of Question 1 are not too worried about it, figuring the chances of even a few missed votes like this will not end up pushing the outcome another way. They will continue to count ballots until December 15th – at which point they will take a break for the holidays until January and counting will then resume. The measure was supposed to become law in early January, but at this point it will likely be pushed back a few weeks due to the recount – but once it is implemented, there certainly won’t be a question as to whether or not the initiative won fairly.
In other words, “It’s too cold outside to finish this.”
This is not true, I’m working on the recount currently it is over a day ahead of schedule.
Scott gagnon, and the whole no vote clan should be paying the tab. Truth hurts the no vote. Cannabis will be legalized. To all the no voters, it’s your job to raise your children and protect them. NOT THE GOVERNMENT. I personally hold the no voters and prohibitnist responsible for all those jailed for using cannabis. Thank you for the destruction you have caused. Take care of your own children, mind your own business, Scott gagnon and Kevin sabet are the ones that need counseling.
It’s very clear that the nay sayers didn’t take their loss very well ….My problem with this is the power being flexed here and the thousands being spent because they couldn’t except the outcome ….This folks is taking the people have spoken completely out of this matter ….This is political red tape for miles and very blatantly performed ….OK with my opinion being said, now because of this temper tantrum we as citizens of this state will in many ways foot the bill and the cherry on top is Counting will be put on hold for the holidays and will resume afterwards ….Oh sorry if I offend here but God Bless you all and Merry Christmas followed by and awesome new year!