The outcomes did not change in Elmore County Monday, after state employees took eight hours to recount and tabulate 3,193 ballots.
The recount initially found 373 ballots were not tallied on Election Day, but those votes did not sway two trustee elections in the Glenns Ferry and Bruneau-Grand View school districts, the decision to approve a $6.2 million supplemental levy in the Mountain Home School District or the vote to keep open Bruneau Elementary School. The recount also did not change any of the results in races for mayor, city councils and a fire district.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane led a team of 18 staff members from his office as they hand counted the ballots at the Elks Lodge in Mountain Home Monday. The process began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m. Three teams of four seated at folding tables methodically counted every vote on every ballot in Elmore County.
On Election Day, Elmore County officials counted 2,820 ballots. Monday’s recount totaled 3,193, an increase of 373. But McGrane said 3,203 voters checked in.
“There is still a difference of 10 total, but that is considerably better than where we started today,” McGrane said Monday night.
Those figures changed slightly on Tuesday, when McGrane and his staff returned to Mountain Home to investigate the reporting discrepancy.
His team re-ran the ballots through the voting machines used on Election Day and confirmed that the machine totals matched the hand count, according to a Tuesday night press release. McGrane said he is confident that the voting equipment functioned properly.
Further investigation found Elmore County officials did not record the results for 388 ballots processed on election night due to “procedural and operational errors.”
“We have already begun reviewing what training we can provide to ensure this does not happen again,” McGrane said in Tuesday’s press release.
Tuesday’s investigation determined that Elmore County voters cast 3,208 ballots in the November election, a difference of 15 votes compared with Monday’s recount.
“This is slightly higher than previously reported due to a calculation error in the total number of ballots reported; the prior reported results remain the same,” the press release stated.
The Elmore County commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday to canvass the updated results.
Four tightly contested school-related elections hung in the balance on Monday, but none of the outcomes changed:
- The Mountain Home School District’s $6.2 million supplemental levy passed by 20 votes on Election Day. That increased to 60.
- Voters in Elmore and Owyhee counties supported keeping Bruneau Elementary School open by a 59-vote margin, and did not change with the recount.
- A Glenns Ferry School District trustee race between winner Robert Bergh and runner-up Alan Crane was decided by one vote. Bergh’s lead increased to six.
- A Bruneau-Grand View School District trustee race between winner Raelynn Mathews and runner-up Jeremy Pineda was decided by three votes, and did not change with the recount.
Sen. Christy Zito, R-Mountain Home, observed the recount. As a resident of Elmore County, she said it felt like it was her civic duty to attend.
“Being involved in the government that is of the people, it’s important that we participate,” Zito said.
Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead was charged with securing the ballots through the process. One of his deputies sat next to the ballot boxes all day.
County Clerk Shelley Essl then opened the red boxes and officials distributed the paper ballots among the three tables. She said she hopes McGrane and his staff will help find out what happened. She initially noticed a discrepancy when she looked at the total ballots cast compared with how many were counted.
“Something happened in the processing of those, because all the ballots are accounted for,” Essl said. “They were always accounted for.”
The results will “definitely” be complete today, she added.
“Once they start counting, they can’t stop,” she said.
McGrane said he can’t recall a situation like this, where every vote in every race in the county needs to be recounted.
“It’s more important that we take our time and are very deliberate about everything that we do, rather than trying to hurry to get results,” he said.
Inside the process
Three teams of four today are hand counting more than 3,000 ballots. Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the 20 observers at the Elks Lodge in Mountain Home how the process works:
- One person at each table looks at a ballot and reads the results aloud.
- The person sitting next to them looks over their shoulder to double check.
- Sitting opposite, two people record each vote in separate tally books. They occasionally check in to make sure their tallies match.
“With the hand count process there’s always the opportunity for human error, both on the tally side and the reading side, so we have safeguards in place,” McGrane said.
This is the same process the state uses for every recount or audit, and is based on best practices nationally.
After the count is complete, the Elmore County Board of County Commissioners will meet as the Board of Canvassers to canvass the results. Then the count goes to judicial review.
“A judge will ultimately do the assessment of what are the implications here and, if necessary in any instance, a new election would need to be called,” McGrane said. “But by the end of the day we will have new results.”
EdNews updated this story throughout the day:
1:20 p.m.: After Pizza Hut for lunch, McGrane said his team had completed counting all of the ballots cast on Election Day. They are now sorting absentee and early ballots, as they were not previously broken out by precinct. “We’re going to start with the sorting and separation, and then we’ll go into the tallying, just like we were earlier,” he said.
2:30 p.m.: Several candidates for city council and other offices are waiting for results at the Elks Lodge, including Alan Crane, who lost his trustee race in Glenns Ferry School District by one vote. Candidate Robert Bergh won with 35 votes.
With the race so close, Crane said he decided to ask for a recount the day after the election. Now, with the recount unfolding before him, he said it’s like Election Day all over again.
“My initial gut feeling was it wasn’t right, but when it came out that there were 300 misplaced ballots or whatever happened, it was kind of overwhelming,” Crane told EdNews.
A former city council member in Glenns Ferry, Crane said he decided to run for school board because the district keeps losing kids to homeschooling. He said he wants the district to invest in its agriculture program to bring those kids back.
“Being in an ag community, we really need to capitalize on what we already have there,” he said.
2:50 p.m.: McGrane says the tallying is complete. His counting team is leaving for the day, but some of his staff are staying at the Elks Lodge to add the numbers to a spreadsheet. He said it will still take some time before the results are complete. Sheriff Mike Hollinshead has taken the ballots back to a secure location.
