MONROE - Election night and the following morning at The Monroe Times is always filled with activity.
Reporters come in Tuesday night to wait for the returns.
Getting the results used to entail going to the Green County Clerk's office and waiting for the final results to come in. It was a long process that seemed to drag on forever. Reporters from competing media would anxiously await the numbers and then quickly snatch up the vote tallies.
Several years ago, Green County began to put its election results online and that saved a lot of time.
Now, we just have to wait until Mike Doyle and his staff enter the numbers into the computer and within a few minutes the final results, though unofficial until the Green County Board of Canvassers adopts them, are at our fingertips.
Then the process of contacting the winners begins.
Some of the candidates are easier to get in touch with than others.
All of the winners' comments need to be recorded as early as possible Wednesday so they can be in the Wednesday edition.
For some of the candidates, that means a phone call around 9 p.m. Tuesday, or maybe even a little later. For others, it means a call by about 7:30 Wednesday morning. It might be a little inconvenient for the winners.
But as one winner was jokingly told Tuesday at about 9:30 p.m.: "This is the life of an elected official. We call at all hours of the day."
Results from Lafayette County are always difficult to get because, unlike Green County, school board, village board and city council results don't come to the Lafayette County Clerk's office.
That can make for a difficult task when trying to contact election night winners. Reporters are often scrambling to find out who won or if a referendum passed or failed.
A busy morning becomes even more hectic as reporters and editors try to collect final results.
But, and I say this jokingly, that's the life of a reporter.
- Brian Gray is a reporter
for the Monroe Times.
He can be reached at
bgray@themonroetimes.com
Reporters come in Tuesday night to wait for the returns.
Getting the results used to entail going to the Green County Clerk's office and waiting for the final results to come in. It was a long process that seemed to drag on forever. Reporters from competing media would anxiously await the numbers and then quickly snatch up the vote tallies.
Several years ago, Green County began to put its election results online and that saved a lot of time.
Now, we just have to wait until Mike Doyle and his staff enter the numbers into the computer and within a few minutes the final results, though unofficial until the Green County Board of Canvassers adopts them, are at our fingertips.
Then the process of contacting the winners begins.
Some of the candidates are easier to get in touch with than others.
All of the winners' comments need to be recorded as early as possible Wednesday so they can be in the Wednesday edition.
For some of the candidates, that means a phone call around 9 p.m. Tuesday, or maybe even a little later. For others, it means a call by about 7:30 Wednesday morning. It might be a little inconvenient for the winners.
But as one winner was jokingly told Tuesday at about 9:30 p.m.: "This is the life of an elected official. We call at all hours of the day."
Results from Lafayette County are always difficult to get because, unlike Green County, school board, village board and city council results don't come to the Lafayette County Clerk's office.
That can make for a difficult task when trying to contact election night winners. Reporters are often scrambling to find out who won or if a referendum passed or failed.
A busy morning becomes even more hectic as reporters and editors try to collect final results.
But, and I say this jokingly, that's the life of a reporter.
- Brian Gray is a reporter
for the Monroe Times.
He can be reached at
bgray@themonroetimes.com