UNDATED (WTAQ) - With the Wisconsin presidential recount set to begin Thursday, each of the 72 county clerks are scrambling to get their ducks in a row.
For Outagamie County Clerk Lori O'Bright, that scurry began on Sunday.
"I worked until midnight and this morning (Monday) I met with the county executive and we're working on a lot of the logistics," says O'Bright in a phone interview Monday afternoon. "The details of which we're still working on."
There's a lot of organization which dominates those logistical details.
"Obtaining a location to do it, getting the agendas out, getting the necessary workers or tabulators to support a canvass," O'Bright explains. "Making sure that all the materials are received from the municipalities because in addition to what they brought back the day after Election Day, they have to bring in their records to compare with the county records."
It was Monday morning when the Wisconsin Elections Commission officially approved the timeline for completing a recount of the state’s presidential vote, which calls for having results submitted to the agency no later than 8 p.m. on December 12.
"A lot of coordination at this point, you know, just to be ready to go when it starts Thursday morning," says Sue Ertmer, Winnebago County Clerk.
Much like when buying real estate, the stage for this nationally-watched recount is all about location, location, location. It also best be secure.
"Here it'll be at the courthouse," Ertmer says. "Because all of the ballots are secured at the county level, so we try to have a location to conduct the recount where we can keep everything locked up until we need it. So we just take out the ballots and materials that we need, and then do the recount on each reporting unit or each municipality and secure them again."
O'Bright did not specify where they were going to be conducting their recount.
SO WHO'S COUNTING
It's going to be a long 12 days for the volunteers and others who will be looking over the ballots of each Wisconsinite who submitted one earlier this fall.
Experience with handling elections and voting is key.
"We reach out to the municipal clerks because they are the ones who work with all their poll workers, and find and hire people to work at their polls," says Ertmer. "So those are ideally the best people to come in and conduct the recount because they're familiar with the materials."
As Ertmer continued to fill out her roster of detail-oriented individuals, O'Bright has already checked this task off her list.
"I sent an email out to my municipal clerks, requesting either the clerks or the chief election inspectors. That's the primary labor force I want to work with," O'Bright says. "In addition, part-time county staff has also volunteered, those who might want extra hours or that are on vacation and can assist with this effort."
The time crunch is something that got a bit tighter, after the WEC pushed up the deadline from December 13 amid concerns that they might not have enough time to review and certify the results before the federal deadline. Both clerks, however, say this won't be an around the clock operation.
"No, because the Board of Canvass is human, we have to sleep," jokes O'Bright. "What I'm looking at is a 10-hour day, and that will probably be sufficient for the Board to be able to have oversight for all the workers that are going to be working through this."
Ertmer believes they'll have an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. schedule daily through the deadline. The reason, aside from not having enough staff to work 24/7, is that it's an important, yet grueling task.
"People physically get exhausted and you don't want them to make mistakes because they're tired," Ertmer says. "We'll do our darndest to meet the deadline and we'll just work the hours we have to."
ECHOES OF 2011
The last time the Badger State conducted a recount was the 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court race between David Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg. At that time, it was the first recount Wisconsin had in more than 20 years.
Ertmer and O'Bright were both in their positions that year, and recall what that was like as they prepare for an even more contentious venture.
"That was a little bit of baptism by fire then," says O'Bright, who had taken the clerk's job just a day before the recount announcement. "So a lot of the records that I maintained and put into place in 2011 will assist greatly with this effort."
The span of time it took for that recount, which Prosser won by nearly 7,000 votes, is what sparks Ertmer's memory.
"We had just under 40,000 votes and it took us 9 days," Ertmer says. "And now we've got almost 90,000 votes and they want us to get it done in 12. So, we'll do what we have to do, but it's going to be very time consuming."
For this particular race, Republican Donald Trump won Wisconsin over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 22,177 votes. Late Monday, the WEC estimated the cost of conducting the recount at nearly $3.5 million.