‘Checking everything’

FAIRMONT May 17, 2008 02:17 am

— Marion County’s canvassing board and four teams of poll workers convened at the county election center at 10 a.m. Friday morning to certify the results of Tuesday’s primary election.
The board, made up of the three county commissioners, first chose four precincts at random, 34, 62, 70, and 114, to be hand-counted by 16 poll workers.
A requirement issued under the state Legislature, the teams were set up equally with two Democrats and two Republicans on each one, explained County Clerk Janice Cosco.
The workers were tasked to go through the results by hand, count them, and compare them to the electronic results calculated Tuesday night from the Ivotronic voting machines.
The commissioners and several county staff members then began sifting through the results precinct-by-precinct and deliberating the 270 provisional ballots that were received. Commissioners also counted a stack of absentee ballots postmarked before May 13 during the canvass.
Cosco explained that the provisional or challenged ballots include those cast by voters who were either not registered or may have voted in the wrong precinct.
These votes were not counted in Tuesday’s results, and it is the canvass board’s job to go through them individually and decide whether or not to count them in the final tallies.
There are specific guidelines set by the secretary of state and enforced in every county that determine whether a challenged ballot can be counted.
Cosco said Friday afternoon that the hand-counting was moving along rather quickly, but that the precinct-by-precinct numeration was slower, which she said is typical.
“The commissioners are checking everything. They are very careful in everything they do,” Cosco said.
When the canvass is over, which Cosco said she expects to happen soon after the board reconvenes Monday morning, the election results will officially be certified.
Cosco said with only one race, the Republican sheriff candidate, close enough to be affected by the canvass results, she does not expect much of a change to Tuesday’s numbers. In that race, only eight votes stood between winner W.L. “Fuzzy” Knight and Tom Bowman.
In Tuesday’s election, which determined the Democratic and Republican nominees for a series of state, national and local political races in the upcoming general election in November, a total of 18,602 voters turned out at the polls. Of these, 14,737 (79.22 percent) were Democrats, 3,551(19.09 percent) were Republicans, and 314 (1.69 percent) were Mountain Party members.
In November’s general election, voters will cast ballots nationally for a new president and U.S senator. At the state level, the governor is up for re-election, and there will be races for secretary of state, two state senators, and three delegates. Locally, a new county sheriff will be elected, and there will be a race for a new county commissioner, among other political selections on all levels.
On Monday morning, the precinct-by-precinct tally is expected to be completed and the election results officially certified.
E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.

Photos

The Marion County Commission, serving as the county’s canvassing board, joined a handful of additional staffers and 16 poll workers at the election center at the former Bauer Lumber Co. building on Friday morning to certify the results of Tuesday’s primary election. Pictured (from left) are Donna Wells, Commissioner Randy Elliott, Commissioner Wayne Stutler, Cecelia Donato and Commission President Alan Parks. The group is expected to reconvene Monday morning with the final results. Times West Virginian