Politics & Government

Patch Spring Tour: Election Night at City Hall

Our second stop brought us to Oak Creek's election headquarters.

I've covered roughly six years' worth of spring elections in Wisconsin. However, it had always been by working the phones in a newsroom.

That changed on Tuesday when I ventured down to City Hall and watched the election results get posted in real time, on a big white board in the city clerk's office. It was also the second stop of our ; the first being earlier in the day.Β 

Besides me, there was a stringer reporting results for local television stations, a Jeff Stone campaign worker, School Board candidate Sheryl Cerniglia and her husband, and about six people or so working in the clerk's office. Poll workers also streamed in and out throughout the night.

Find out what's happening in Oak Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We watched as vote totals for Cerniglia and Mark Verhalen were posted district-by-district (Oak Creek has six districts, and three in Franklin are part of the school district). I also watched with interest as the came in.

Early on, it seemed pretty clear the School Board race would come right down to the wire. And if you read my posted late last night, you know that's exactly what happened, as Verhalen eked out a 30-vote win over Cerniglia.Β 

Find out what's happening in Oak Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Cerniglia, who was feverishly scribbling down numbers and doing the math all night, was very gracious afterward considering the result. I would be surprised if she didn't have some bitterness deep down, but if that was the case, she did a good job of keeping it to herself.

I then stepped away to call Verhalen, who had not heard the results yet. Understandably, he proceeded pretty gingerly when making comments, because outside of my Twitter feed, the final result had not yet made it into the media.

If I learned nothing else milling around the hallway and watching city staff do their work, it's this - our election process works pretty well. It's not perfect, and there will be irregularities no matter how you do it (there even was a minor hiccup in Oak Creek's 5th District), but residents can at least be assured that their vote was counted Tuesday.

Ah, democracy in action. Not a bad second stop on the Patch tour bus.


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