Recounted elections ought to use recount results

[nbdavies]

Elections with recounts involved (from following the portal link to WEC's site and looking for links with "recount" visible):
2016-11-08
2014-08-12
2013-04-02
2012-06-05
2011-04-05
2010-11-02
2010-09-14
2008-11-04
2006-11-07
2004-09-14
2003-07-22
2002-11-05
2002-02-19 (now in metadata)

[davipo]

On 2017-11-29, I searched for input files with "recount" in the filename, found 7 below. Are all of these in the above list?

2006_FallElection_Recount_WardbyWard.xls
WARD_BY_WARD_FOR_SPRING_2011_ELECTION_AND_RECOUNT.xls
Ward%20by%20Ward%20Original%20Canvass%20Results-%20President%20%28Under%20Recount%29.xlsx
Ward%20results_4.5.11_circuit_Sheboygan%203%20recount%20pending.xls
Ward%20results_4.5.11_supreme_recount%20pending.xls
Ward%20Results_6.5.12%20Recall%20Election_all%20offices_post%20sen%2021%20recount.xls
WxW%20Fall%20Pri04_dem%20assm36%20recount.pdf

[davipo]

Now using recounts for 2011-04-05 Supreme Court election (id 421).

[davipo]

For the 2006-11-07 State Assembly election, we are using the file 2006_FallElection_Recount_WardbyWard.xls, which presumably includes recount data.

The only information I found about this recount was here:
https://www.beloitdailynews.com/archive/article-1df46cdd-1cfe-59c7-925b-46cab255bb6f.html
(State Assembly district 43 had a recount.)

[davipo]

For the 2011-04-05 Circuit Court election, we are using the file
Ward%20results_4.5.11_circuit_Sheboygan%203%20recount%20pending.xls
There was a recount for Sheboygan County Circuit Court Judge, Branch 3.
Recounted results are apparently available only in a PDF file:
https://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/results/2011/spring

[davipo]

The 2006-09-12 primary election had four recounts. We don't have any results yet for the offices involved, because they are only available in PDF format. See #28 (comment)

[nbdavies]

2016-11-08
Offices recounted: President, State Senate district 32
For both offices, we can just reuse the source files that include recount results--one for president, one for state senate. (We're already pointing to those correct input files.)

2014-08-12
Offices recounted: State Senate district 17, State Assembly district 87
This is a case where we'd have to overlay/composite results together: there are files that have just the recounted offices; there are also files with the full assembly and senate results that include the pre-recount results for district 17. We would need to parse most state senate results from one file, and pull results for one particular district from another file.

2013-04-02
Offices recounted: Manitowoc Circuit Court Branch 1
There is a file for circuit court results including Manitowoc branch 1. There is also a file linked/named as "pre-recount" results for Manitowoc branch 1, with different results. Logically this implies that the full circuit court file includes recounted results for Manitowoc, in which case for source files, all we need do is include the full circuit court file and exclude the "pre-recount" file, but it's not explicit. (We're already using the correct input file.)

2012-06-05
Offices recounted: State Senate district 21
There's a file for all offices, "post-recount", so that should be all we need. (We were already using that file.)

2011-04-05
Offices recounted: Supreme Court, Sheboygan County Circuit Court
For supreme court, we're already specially parsing a post-recount file. There's also a "recount pending" file for supreme court that is the pre-recount results.
For circuit court, there's a PDF for just the Sheboygan recount results. And there's a file ("recount pending") for all circuit court results, where the Sheboygan results don't match the recount results, so they must be pre-recount.
So this is an example where we would want to composite together recount results if possible for the circuit court results, but at the moment those recount results are also PDF-only. We could ask WEC about providing a circuit court file that includes the Sheboygan recount results in XLS format; if possible, that would solve two problems at once.

2010-11-02
Offices recounted: Governor
WEC provides multiple files that include the results for governor (amongst other offices). These all appear to be the same results (post-recount, presumably). So we are/were already using post-recount results.

2010-09-14
Offices recounted: State Assembly district 32
There is a ward-level XLS file linked to as "pre-recount", and there is a county-level XLS file labeled "FINAL" (ie. post-recount). There is no ward-level file available for post-recount results in any format. This would be something else to ask WEC about.

2008-11-04
Offices recounted: State Assembly district 47, State Senate district 18
There is a file for the recounted assembly district results. Results for that district also appear in the overall state assembly file, and appear to be the same. (We were already using the correct file for this.)
However, that is not true for the state senate results: district 18's totals within the larger state senate results file do not match the post-recount totals. Post-recount ward-level results for SD 18 are only available in PDF; otherwise the task would be to composite/overlay them. We could ask WEC about a full state senate file that includes the recounted results for district 18.

2006-11-07
Offices recounted: State Assembly districts 43, 47, 88, and 96 (according to this PDF)
There is a file with ward-level post-recount results for all state assembly districts. That appears to be what we're using.

2004-09-14
Offices recounted: State Assembly district 36
The recount results are PDF only. So are the pre-recount results. Compositing them together will be a challenge to face after we convert them to something more useful. WEC hasn't been able to offer XLS versions of these older elections.

2003-07-22
Offices recounted: State Assembly district 71
This was a special election for two offices (one assembly district, one senate district). There are pre-recount results for both races, but only in PDF. There are post-recount results just for the assembly district was recounted, also only in PDF. We'll have to figure out how to combine them once we handle those PDFs.

2002-11-05
Offices recounted: State Senate district 9
For the recounted results, there is a county-level PDF. But the results for district 9 in the state senate XLS file appear to match the recounted numbers.

2002-02-19
Offices recounted: Polk County Circuit Court branch 1 (based on comparing result summaries)
There is a pre-recount PDF for all offices, and a post-recount PDF for all offices. So when we're ready to parse PDFs, as long as we use the post-recount file, that should suffice.

Summary: With some judicious choice of source files, many of the recounts can be handled (and already are!). Some won't a problem until we parse PDFs. But there are also some where we would have to overlay/composite post-recount results for a particular office/district over top of pre-recount results for the same office/district. That would require a significant change in paradigm, because the parser would have to be more stateful than it currently is, as it reads in source files and writes CSVs.