I had arrived after about an hour into the counting and didn't hear until later that candidates were told to stay away. That is outrageous to me. Candidates frequently hang around the counting room in local elections, making appearances for interviews about how the returns are coming along. As someone who enjoys watching the election returns and occasionally goes down to the county registrar of voters office to see the counting and the instant returns posted every few minutes, I was wondering where the KPFA reporters were and why it was not being broadcast live. These are questions that everyone should be talking about.
Unofficial election results is what everyone hears on every election night.
Elections don't become official until weeks later, but the excitement is when the counting goes on, not when the Board of Supervisors has some boring meeting weeks later to formally adopt the vote as official. This could have been a wonderful educational experience broadcasting hourly updates on the process with a blow by blow over the air report when the final count was made. It is sad to me that at the counting of the votes ushering us into the new era, we see the vestiges of the secrecy in the rotten Pacifica culture that has led to the very election we should have been celebrating live throughout KPFA-land. Transparency isn't a token to play against your opponents, it's a life style to live up to in our daily livelihood. There should have been no question that the candidates should have been there, and the whole listener community should have had radio access to the events.