Yes, there were eight groups of ballot counters. Each group had two counters, individuals hired by the Sec. of State on a per diem basis because of their familiarity with the process (there are recounts annually for some of the legislative or town elections), who were observed by at least two volunteer observers from the campaigns. Actually, I was only aware of Kucinich and Clinton people, but only Kucinich is paying for this exercise.

The group I was in did two voting precincts totaling about 2000 ballots. First we watched the separation of ballots as they were taken out of the "sealed" boxes the election supervisors had forwarded (cardboard boxes of various sizes that were sealed with packing tape and had a certifying placcard with official signatures attached so they had to be cut to open the box. The ballots are on stock of various thicknesses, even among the official ballots. Some places obviously ran out of Democratic ballots and ran some off on xerox machines of regular paper which couldn't be counted by the opti-scans and had to be hand counted at the voting place. Because they'd already been counted by hand, they tended to already be sorted by party and saved us some time. But, because the paper is thin, they're more difficult to count by hand. Many of the ballots as they came out of the boxes were rather bent and wrinkled and one suspects that running them back through the opti-scans for a machine re-count would not work real well.

After the Dem ballots were separated and the Rep ballots put back into boxes and sealed and witnessed, the counters read off the names of the candidate marked and after showing the ballot to the observers placed them in stacks for Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Kucinich, Richardson, other, write-in and anomalies (double votes and no votes)

Our second batch from the town of Pelham had more write-in votes for Romney and McCain than Kucinich got.

After the ballots from a district or town were all sorted and the anomalies were photographed (a check mark next to a name, rather than the oval being filled in, e.g.) each of the stacks was counted by one counter into stacks of 25 and then recounted by the other counter to verify. And as each candidate was done, the ballots were totaled and recorded on a sheet with the names of all candidates. The votes for Vice President were not counted or recorded. When all ballots were recorded they were put back in boxes and taped and resealed to go back into storage.

I understand that the SoS is putting running totals up on the web site. The information wasn't provided to the workers and volunteers. There were a few news people around today. I saw Bev Harris in the morning and Mainefem's Jean Hay Bright. It's my understanding that the Republican candidate's check has been received and deposited and the count will take place after the Dem count is done.

The Clinton campaign has send a huge contingent of observers, but it's my understanding that, for all their interest, they're not putting any money into the pot. Neither are any of the verified voting groups.

*********************************** The archives building is in a sort of state office park of what used to be primarily state hospital facilities and grounds. For lunch we were directed to the cafeteria of the state hospital but were assured that the Tobey School would be a closer walk and features a cafeteria on the first floor, as well. It's likely that this old brick building was also part of the state mental hospital complex. A receptionist directed us through several fire doors to a small "restaurant" with a big fish tank, a sign welcoming Governor Lynch on the bulletin board and a hand carved sign over the service counter asking patience because the staff are students in vocational training.

We chose sandwiches much like those you'd make at home and, together with a drink, shelled out three bucks each. On my way out of the building, I asked the receptionist about the nature of the school and she gave me a brochure to take along. Seems like the Tobey School is an alternative school for special needs students which, according to one of my counting mates, includes youth who are too young to send to prison for their crimes. The brochure does describe residential facilities for up to 24 youth. The rest are day students. In the old days it would probably have been referred to as a reform school.