Anchor Introduction:

Every election day, one location in Portage County is responsible for collecting and counting all of the voter’s votes. The Portage County Board of Elections building is overwhelmed with chaios on election nights as they try to count and release results to the public as soon as possible. TV2 reporter Bethany Vietmeier was at the PCBOE last night as the votes poured in.

[Take Package]

[Length 1:51]

[CG: Dan Banks/Precinct Judge][0:28]

[CG: Dan Banks/Precinct Judge][0:41]

[CG: Bethany Vietmeier/RPA reporter][0:59]

[CG: Barbara Francis/Clerk][1:14]

[CG: Barbara Francis/Clerk][1:28]

Shortly after 8:10 p.m. last night, the first set of ballots came through the doors of the Portage County Board of Elections.

But then, by 8:45 p.m. the hallway in the PCBOE was flooded with red and yellow bags from each of the 131 precincts.

Both the red and yellow bags contained important items that needed to be brought in by Precinct Judges.

SOT: Dan Banks

IN THE REG BAG, IS JUST THE SUPPLIES AND THE SIGNS THAT YOU LEGALLY HAVE TO HAVE OUT FOR VOTING. LIKE THE RIGHTS THEY HAVE FOR VOTING AND THE PEOPLE THEY ARE VOTING FOR.

Now the yellow bags are a little more valuable to the outcome of the election.

SOT: Dan Banks

IN THE YELLOW BAG, IS THE PAPER BALLOTS, THE PROVISIONAL BALLOTS, THE MEMORY CARDS FROM THE MACHINES, SO BASICALLY ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO BE TALLIED ARE IN THE YELLOW BAG. IT’S MORE SECURE.

STANDUP:

NOW AFTER ALL OF THE RED AND YELLOW BAGS ARE BROUGHT INTO THE PORTAGE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, THEY ARE BROUGHT INTO THIS ROOM WHERE THEY ARE CHECKED BY CLERKS TO MAKE SURE THEY HAVE ALL OF THEIR SUPPLIES.

Around 9 p.m. last night, the clerks had checked many of the bags.

SOT:

WE HAVE TO CHECK AND MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING THEY WERE ISSUED COMES BACK TO US.

Once the bags have been checked, they are sent to the computer room, which cameras were not allowed in, to gather the results.

By 9:15 p.m., ten of the precincts results had been posted in the PCBOE cafeteria and on their website.

And by 10:02 last evening, results from 62 precincts were finally posted.

For TV2 news, I’m Bethany Vietmeier

Anchor Tag:

The Portage County Board of Elections released the final unofficial results at 12:25 a.m.

Critique-

I really enjoyed this package because there was a lot of action going on the entire time. However, I do wish some of my shot were focused better. I thought the interviews were pretty good and provided information that would have been hard for me to write in my script. If I could change one thing about this package would be some of the Natural sound was weak and hard to hear.