The state…

…of the recount
Your Eyewitness woke up bright and early yesterday and plunked himself in front of his TV and his computer – yes, both – so’s to get a ringside seat to the long awaited “recount”. He hadn’t felt this excited since the last heavyweight bout between Fury and Wilder. He even had his plantain chips and mauby ready. He’d been clamouring for “livestreaming”, and had been assured by Chair Claudette that he’d get live streaming.
He’d been wondering all night exactly how he was going to view all 10 counting stations simultaneously, but he figured it might be something like the Zoom platform, which he was now using like a pro to chat with long-lost relatives across the globe. What he was still confused about was how he’d keep track of 10 sets of activities on ten “windows”. Wasn’t it going to sound like the reincarnation of the old Tower of Babel??
Anyhow why worry in this day of a communication revolution, unfolding every day in the age of COVID?? A month ago, he didn’t know Zoom from Doom!! As he flicked on, reporters were kvetching about the horrible conditions they were being forced to operate under: one tent in an open field, with foot-long grass with God knows what could be crawling about!! No chairs or loos, portable or otherwise!! But your jaded Eyewitness wondered why the reporters were surprised. Did they think GECOM was going to make it easy for the group that exposed them to ignominy and shame after the Affaire Mingo?? As far as GECOM was concerned, this was war, and reporters who cover wars have to rough and tough it out!!
After about two hours or so, your Eyewitness returned from HIS look break and found, to his astonishment, the “livestreaming” was on. His exclamation can’t be reproduced verbatim in a family newspaper…What the ****? is about as close as he can get!! Livestreaming?? All he was getting was the GECOM logo and a babble of voices that sounded like it was coming from a fish market!! Was this going to be it??
After another couple of hours of scouring the computer for other sites that might have some video livestreaming, he glumly concluded that the PNC had won once again. The PPP got livestreaming, but did not get video!!
This was a Pyrrhic Victory is every sense there was one. Where was the “transparency” in just hearing voices calling out numbers and arguing about them periodically?? Transparency references sight, not sound.
Later in the day, he did get one video – smuggled out guerrilla style via WhatsApp on one skirmish in the war. PNC’s harridan Carol Joseph was berating some unfortunate Opposition Observer!!
The recount was a going to be a repeat!!

…of the pace of the recount
Lots of folks were up in arms (including your Eyewitness) when Lowenfield assumed it would take two hours to count a single ballot box. At an average of three hundred ballots per box, even some Lil ABC kids could do better than that!! But sadly, after starting at 10am, by 4:30pm, when your Eyewitness was writing this up, just TEN boxes had been counted in the ten stations!!
This means that each station took an average of five hours to count a single box!! Well, maybe your Eyewitness didn’t get all the statements of recount (SORs), but you can bet your bottom dollar that Lowenfield’s estimate will look modest!! The reason for the extraordinary timespan is that, as we figured out – this isn’t a recount, but an AUDIT!! The ever-voluble Carol Joseph insisted they have FACTS of dead and emigrated persons who voted, so they’d be making objections, each of which have to be checked out in the three-state process!
Will CariCom wait three months??

…of COVID-19 protection
Your Eyewitness saw three participants in the recount process being interviewed – Broomes, Schuman and Joseph. The latter allowed her mask to slide to her chin.
And not a single reporter called her out!!