Auditor will seek recount after discrepancy
The Messenger  By LUKE JENNETT  November 8, 2006

HUMBOLDT — After conflicting reports came in from several precincts in Humboldt County, County Auditor Peggy Rice said she will ask the county’s Board of Supervisors to authorize an administrative recount in the county attorney race.

The race became contested late in campaign season with the introduction of write-in candidate Jennifer Benson, who ran with the endorsement of Harlan Hansen, a member of the Board of Supervisors. Benson said the board, as well as people from the Department of Human Services, had approached her about running, citing some concerns they had with current County Attorney Paul Walter’s job performance.

The vote in Humboldt County came back seemingly in favor of Benson — of the two categories listed on the official returns, nearly 55 percent of the total vote went to write-in votes — but a discrepancy between the write-ins recorded at each precinct and the machine printouts of those ballots concerned Rice enough to ask for the recount.

‘‘I was comfortable with the total number of write-ins, but I want to know who they went to,’’ said Rice, noting that although Benson had run a strong write-in campaign, some of the votes might not necessarily go to her. The ballots were sealed before leaving the precincts.

The problem was with the tally books recorded at the precincts, she said. The numbers recorded didn’t match with the total numbers supplied as printouts by the two types of voting devices, touch-screen machines for electronic voting and a scanners for paper ballots. Rice said that some of the precincts had only recorded the machine printout tally, while others had only sent the paper ballot tally.

‘‘I didn’t feel comfortable with that,’’ said Rice. ‘‘To me that means we’re not getting the total vote on the tally list.’’

Rice said she will approach Humboldt County supervisors about the recount at a special meeting on Thursday.

2,856 votes were cast in the race, according to preliminary results. Walter received 1,294, or roughly 45 percent.

Walter, who was appointed to the county attorney seat in June 2005, originally called Benson’s entry into the race at the behest of county officials ‘‘politics as usual,’’ but admitted Wednesday that he was surprised at how effective the write-in candidacy had been.

‘‘It’s pretty unusual for there to be so many write-in votes,’’ he said. ‘‘They certainly got the vote out, I guess.’’

He noted that Humboldt County had had a pretty high turnout this November, especially for a non-presidential election year.

‘‘I’m just waiting to find out what the final results are,’’ said Walter. ‘‘Not much else I can do.’’

Benson said she was somewhat disappointed that the results weren’t final yet, but said she’d rather all the votes were counted so there’s no controversy in the results. She said she believed she came out ahead.

‘‘With the unofficial results we received, I do still feel confident I prevailed,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m thrilled at the opportunity, and I hope it all works out.’’

If Benson is elected, she will be the fifth person since 2002 to hold the county attorney office in Humboldt County.

Benson said her potential win, coming after only a few weeks spend campaigning, was somewhat of a surprise to her, as well.

‘‘I didn’t know what to expect,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m very humbled to see the response I did generate in just a few weeks.’’

Hansen said he was elated by the unofficial count.

‘‘I supported her all the way,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m elated that the people of Humboldt County took our advice and elected a new county attorney.’’

He said he hadn’t been surprised that a write-in campaign that was begun late in the election season had gathered so much support from voters.

‘‘The rumor on the street was very good,’’ he said about the days leading up to the vote. ‘‘Everyone was talking about the write-in.’’