Nathan Barnes, a candidate for Unified Government commissioner, 1st District at large, who came in one vote short of going on to the general election, has filed for a vote recount today, Election Commissioner Bruce Newby said.
Newby said the recount will be conducted at 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 11, at the Election Office, 850 State Ave.
After the recount, the Board of Canvassers will meet soon, and he will try to convene them on Friday, to certify the vote recount, he said. It will be the board’s decision whether to accept the recount numbers or not. He added he will not release the vote recount until after the Board of Canvassers has certified it.
In the canvass of votes, the official certified total that was announced on Monday, March 9, was Melissa Bynum, 1,129 votes; Mark Gilstrap, 1,105 votes; and Nathan Barnes, 1,104 votes. Only the top two go on to the general election.
The number of votes changed slightly at the canvass, because 43 provisional votes were counted, but the outcome of the election did not change Monday. Another 24 provisional votes were not counted by the Board of Canvassers.
Barnes, a UG commissioner for 18 years from the 1st District, paid a $2,730 bond in order to ask for a recount today, Newby said.
The recount will cover all the ballots that were cast for the UG Commission 1st District, at large contest, Newby said. It totals 62 precincts, about 5,000 ballots. It will be a recount of every ballot cast in that contest, he said.
Newby said the cost of the recount is less than what has been previously charged. When he first started, he estimated the cost of a recount at $6,000, and a few years ago, it was $3,500, he said. He said he has pinpointed the costs of the recount, as allowed under state law, to include items such as the cost of personnel to do the recount, a special board, temporary employees and other costs outlined under the law.
Newby said Barnes has requested the recount to be done by hand. The election night vote count was done by optical scan readers, a machine count, he said.
Newby said his previous experience with recounts is that the election results were “dead-on.”
“I’m not saying at this point the numbers won’t change, but I sure don’t expect it to happen,” he said. “If it does happen I will want to know why.”
“But I have never found the machines to be off, only people,” Newby said. “It was the reason we went to voting machines in the first place, because people couldn’t count.”
Another issue was raised at the canvass on Monday, and Newby said he asked for a legal opinion on a question that was raised by another candidate. BPU candidate Thomas Gordon brought up the issue of an “objections board.”
Newby said that he received a legal opinion after the meeting that the statute quoted by Gordon applied only to the nomination process and not the conduct of the election. The statute does not apply to the normal procedures for challenging an election, which include either asking for a recount or a contest of an election in court, Newby said.
Newby said he has to start sending ballots out for the April 7 general election soon. The ballots can’t be printed until the primary election results are final.
To see an earlier story, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/one-vote-shy-of-advancing-barnes-says-hell-ask-for-vote-recount/.
