What happened behind closed doors

To the Editor, and the dear people of Weston County:

I would like to explain what happened in the courthouse on Friday, July 24, and Monday, July 27.

First, on Friday morning at 6:30, Weston County Clerk Mike Tooman called me and asked if I could come in and help him get the machines ready for the test that was going to be Tuesday at 1 p.m. I said “of course,” and told him that I could be there by 9 a.m. Mike needed someone to be a second set of eyes and someone to bounce ideas off of. A week or so earlier, he had held an election judge workshop to give some of the judges the opportunity to get familiar with the tabulator machines. He wasn’t able to get the machines to work and he did not want that to happen at the public machine test.  

On Friday, July 24, we basically ran the whole test deck for the machine test through the tabulators to make sure that everything would work on Tuesday. It was also on Friday afternoon that Susan Love came by to talk about the election judge handbook that she was working on. Deb Piana came by at the same time. On Monday morning, we made sure that each of the Express Poll machines were working. We did not do any programming on the machines, ES&S did all of the programming. We did a practice run on the logic and accuracy test that Mike was going to do on Tuesday, then zeroed the machines so that they were ready for the public test on Tuesday.

Second, I am not at all sorry that I helped Mike. He needed the help and the people in the clerk’s office were very busy both days that I was in the courthouse. But I am sorry that door was locked going into the commissioner’s meeting room. I should have insisted on that door being unlocked. I didn’t, and that was wrong.

Third, how should Weston County move forward? I would really encourage everyone to vote. We all need to vote. If you don’t know who to vote for, do your research all the way from U.S. Senate to precinct committee man and committee woman. Ask someone you trust and then go vote. And for Weston County’s sake, after the votes are counted, we need to work with WHOEVER is elected. Let’s do our best to work with each other, be willing to listen to other view points, fight over ideas and learn from one another regardless of who is in office. I pray that we can break the cycle of tearing each other apart and that we can learn to work with people who have differing views than our own.