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U.S. Senate race recount goes smoothly in Houston County
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
“Everything went quite smoothly. We had a wonderful group to work with, and completed the recount in about four hours. That’s pretty much what I had anticipated,” reported Houston County Auditor Char Meiners. Meiners was referring to the state-wide recount that began on Nov. 19. The recount was prompted when Sen. Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken ended up in a virtual tie, with less than 250 votes separating the two.
Five two-person recount teams, made up of five election judges from throughout the county, and five Houston County employees spent Wednesday morning going through the nearly 11,000 ballots that had been cast in the Nov. 4 general election. The recount took place in the county board room, all under the surveillance of more than a dozen representatives from the Coleman and Franken camps.
Evidently, folks in Houston County are pretty good when it comes to counting. Out of nearly 11,000 ballots, there were only three that were challenged, and it appears as if Coleman’s total will be reduced by two.
“In the La Crescent precinct #1, which is our largest precinct, we seemed to have two more votes for Coleman than we had ballots for him,” Meiners explained. After doing some investigating, it was discovered two ballots had gotten jammed in the voting machine. The jammed ballots were pulled out of the machine, and run through a second time. This gave Coleman two more votes than there were physical ballots for him. The Coleman camp will probably challenge this, according to Meiners.
According to the final numbers, Coleman received 5,028 votes, Franken had 4,596, and there were 1,329 votes for other candidates.
“I want to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to all of the individuals throughout Houston County who served as election judges this year,” Meiners stated. “All of your efforts and hard work are very greatly appreciated. Holding an election is a huge cooperative effort that my staff and I could not do alone. It takes all of you working with us to make the process run smoothly, efficiently and successfully.
“I also want to give a special thank you to the five election judges who assisted with the recount for the office of U.S. Senate, as well as to the judges who phoned or e-mailed offering their assistance,” Meiners continued. “Houston County is very fortunate to have dedicated citizens such as you who are willing to serve their community and help with the election process. You are an awesome group of people!”
The state will be reimbursing each county three cents per vote, which will cost the state approximately $90,000. If the recount takes around four hours, as Meiners predicts, it will cost the county about $100 more than the $328.59 Houston County will receive from the state.
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