Barrett and Walker Announce Plan for Ballots in Milwaukee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2004

For more information contact: County Executive's Office- Steve Mokrohisky 278-4304 Mayor's Office- Carlene Orig 286-8531

Barrett and Walker Announce Plan for Ballots in Milwaukee

Plan guarantees that all votes are counted and all ballots are accounted for

Milwaukee -- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker announced details of a plan to provide the additional ballots requested by the City of Milwaukee Election Commission while insuring that all of the ballots can be accounted for after the election.  The two leaders made the recommendation to the Milwaukee County Election Commission. 

Details of the plan:

• The Milwaukee County Election Commission will print and provide 938,300 ballots to the City of Milwaukee Election Commission for the November 2, 2004 election.
  
• All of the unused ballots from each ward in the City of Milwaukee will be returned to the Milwaukee County Election Commission after the election.  This will insure that the county can account for all of the ballots provided to the city.

The Milwaukee County Election Commission will pay for a base-line allocation of 2,000 ballots per ward. This is in addition to the extra ballots the County Election Commission previously agreed to pay for, including: absentee ballots, additional ballots for high turn-out wards and sample ballots. The City of Milwaukee Election Commission will be financially responsible for an additional 500 ballots per ward if the total amount of ballots used does not exceed 2,000.

"This solution guarantees that all votes are counted and all ballots are accounted for," says County Executive Walker.   

Walker spoke with the head of the Milwaukee County Election Commission – Janice Dunn - on Friday and she confirmed that she and the three members of the commission approve of this plan.  With that in mind, Dunn is working with the printer to begin printing ballots on Saturday.  According to Dunn, the ballots should be ready next week.

"We are committed to running a clean and successful election," stated Mayor Barrett.  "This agreement allows us to give every eligible voter the opportunity to cast his or her ballot in what is expected to be a high voter turnout."

Mayor Barrett met with the Executive Director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, Lisa A. Artison and City attorneys on Friday.  They approve of the plan set forth by both Walker and Barrett.

-###-