After running out of ballots in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sandburg Hall Ward 40 voting location, 58 ballot copies have not been counted for the Nov. 7 election results, election officials said.

When the ballots ran out, the poll workers had to make copies of the original for the last voters. But the ballots were unable to go through the machine and were not counted in the machine’s total, which was reported to the Election Commission.

Ward 40, which includes streets west of campus to the river from Kenwood to Edgewood, reported 1,132 cast votes to the Election Commission. Susan Edman, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said the last 58 ballots were attached to results but were not included in the final numbers.

At the same time, the last voters were under the impression that the votes would be counted for the election results.

“We told them they would be counted,” Edman said. “We didn’t tell them when they would be counted.”

Edman said they would be counted for accurate state and county results and will be posted in an amended report.

‘Green Room’

Besides problems inside the polling site, there were distractions outside as well.

With both Green Party candidates and Mark Green on the ballot, some off-campus voters found it misleading that there was a “Green Room” situated directly next to the entrance to Ward 39 and 40 in Sandburg Hall.

Richard Perry, an attorney with the election commission, said some voters saw the signs for the “Green Room,” an exercise room in the dorms, and thought it was a branch of Mark Green headquarters.

After Perry voiced his concerns, the Green Room staff took down large messages advertising the “Green Room.”

“It was pretty funny,” said Andy Miers, who was working in the Green Room at the time. “He pretty much told us we had to take down anything that said Green on it because it looked like we were supporting Mark Green.”

Voter turnout

At the same time, voter turnout in the wards surrounding UWM for the midterm election was up significantly from the 2002 election.

According to results from Milwaukee’s Election Commission, the voter turnout for Ward 39, which consists mostly of Sandburg Hall residents, increased from 749 voters in the last midterm election in 2002 to 1,235 voters this year. That is a 64.9 percent increase.

Turnout at UWM’s nine closest wards increased by 43 percent with 2,236 more voters total.

Many account the increase to the amendments on the ballot, but David Shaffer, New Voters Project campus organizer, said the youth vote was up around the country.

Milwaukee’s New Voters Project reported registering 1,722 voters leading up to Nov.7 and getting 2,006 pledges to vote in the last week before the election.

And many students voted significantly Democrat. Results from Ward 39, which consists mostly of students living in Sandburg Resident Hall, showed out of 1,235 voters, 752 voted for Doyle (D), 412 for Green (R) and 27 for Eisman (G). Four voters wrote in and four skipped the question.

On the marriage amendment, students in Ward 39 overwhelmingly voted no. Out of those who voted on the amendment, 70.3 percent voted no and 29.6 percent voted yes.

Results were similar for other statewide, congressional and county races.

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