Petition walk-through passes RecallCdA test
<p>Susan Weathers, the Coeur d'Alene city clerk, explains to Frank Orzell, right, and Bill McCrory the process of how recall petitions will be digitized and where the files will be stored when they are received.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The table is set.
Not literally - though one will be Monday.
The walk-through Friday with RecallCdA representatives inspecting the copying equipment at City Hall passed muster, so the $14,000, one-year-old machine is up to the task of scanning thousands of recall petition pages come Monday, everyone seems to agree.
On Monday, the city will set up a long table next to the big, white copy machine so interested parties can take a seat while the real thing goes down.
For those who have no interest sitting at a table and watching a copy machine work, Monday in a nutshell looks like this: RecallCdA at 9 a.m. will bring reams of signed petition pages to City Hall. The city will scan copies of them on its Ricoh 8001 model that has promised to be up to the challenge. Finished, the original petitions will be driven, under police protection, to the Kootenai County Elections Department to begin the week-long signature certifying process.
Friday's 15-minute walk through, led by City Clerk Susan Weathers, described the above process with RecallCdA, media and the recall's counter movement, Stop The Recall - all of whom will likely be sitting at the long table Weathers promised would be set up Monday, when talk of scanning turns to physically pushing buttons.
Frank Orzell, RecallCdA organizer, said he was satisfied with the results of Friday's run.
He said he wasn't looking for anything in particular, and promised to bring in petitions organized appropriately to make the scanning process run smoothly.
"We just want to make sure we can do our part to ensure the integrity of the process," Orzell said. "If that means bringing paper copies as back up, that was one of our questions. That's it."
Friday was the one and only dry run.
The Kootenai County Elections Department won't play host to one. Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes said he was never approached about the idea by RecallCdA, but didn't know how useful one would be before the closed-door computerized certification process begins.
Discs of the scanned petitions will be public record, and available immediately to requesting parties at City Hall, Weathers said.
Meet the team
Meet the Kootenai County Elections temporary and full-time team who will be certifying the recall petitions:
Sherry Van Petten, full time staff
Megan Bircher, full time staff
Jeanne Falconer, full time staff
Pam Bogaert, auditor's office
Susette Clements, auditor's office
Joanne Earle, temp
Cathy Hurrell, temp
Barbara Lovett, temp
Chris Pappas, temp
Lori Rakowski, temp
Bridget Reid, temp
Grace Studer, temp