Recount Changes Three Races Again
Win Or Lose, Candidates Doubt Outcome
This article was published on Monday, November 13, 2006 6:56 PM CST in News
By Michelle Burhenn
The Morning News

 BENTONVILLE Nearly a week later, it appears Benton County's general election could be over.

The Benton County Election Commission, with help from a private consultant, recounted all paper ballots cast Nov. 7 and reloaded data from the electronic machines. These results the third in a week seemed to satisfy Jim McCarthy, the election coordinator.

The latest results show a more realistic voter turnout than the 83 percent turnout reported Thursday. Of 95,900 registered voters in Benton County, 48,681, or 50.8 percent, cast ballots in the general election.

But candidates were slow to accept the results.

"I appreciate the fact that Mr. McCarthy believes everything is correct now, but what assurance do we have of that?" said Janette Lasater, who in the latest results was six votes shy of a runoff for Lowell city clerk. "We have three totally different results."

The results released Monday changed the outcome of three tight races for the second time. Paul Bridges now leads Ray Bunch by four votes in the race for Bella Vista city attorney.
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Candidates in two runoff elections also changed. George Holmes will replace Terry Burnside on the ballot for Bella Vista Position 4 alderman against top vote-getter Stephanie Hacker. Eric Hausserman will face Beverly Keown in the race for Lowell city clerk, replacing Janette Lasater.

In less than a week, Lasater went from third place to first and back again. She said she could accept that she lost, but she didn't understand what could have gone so wrong with the counting.

"It's deplorable that our system is screwed up," she said. "It's not that hard. This isn't rocket science. It's counting."

McCarthy explained Monday that the unprecedented voter turnout in the second set of results, which he announced Thursday, led him to believe something was wrong. He'd asked for a retabulation after the first set of results because turnouts in some precincts seemed too low.

"We don't have 83 percent turnout. We don't have 5,000 people vote when there are 2,500 voters," McCarthy said. "We just knew these numbers were off the chart."

He took the electronic files to the Election Systems & Software office in Little Rock on Friday to find the error, but it turned out that the problem had occurred in Benton County, he said. Election Systems & Software has a statewide contract to provide voting machines.

On election night, two errors occurred simultaneously, McCarthy said. The first error was a computer glitch caused when the county's information services department tried to send a live feed of results to an election watch party at the Clarion Hotel in Bentonville. That glitch caused votes to be d as new results were entered six precincts at a time.

The second error caused vote totals to soar as temporary election workers failed to reset the machines that tabulate the paper ballots. Because they failed to reset the machines, some precincts were counted more than once, McCarthy said.

On election night, the two glitches counteracted each other, giving a 49 percent voter turnout, closer to the final total McCarthy released Monday. But when ballots were retabulated Wednesday and Thursday, the turnout was too high because only the first problem was fixed, he said.

Monday's results account for both problems, he said.

Both winners and losers questioned the finality of the third set of results.

Holmes, who is back in the race for Bella Vista alderman, said he'd had an up-and-down week.

"It would be a great honor to get a chance to be on the City Council, but I would feel better if they would find a final count they could stick to," he said.

Cheryl Murphy, Democratic candidate for justice of the peace in District 2, said she would take Monday night to think about whether to ask for a hand recount. She had 1,411 votes to Republican Frank Winscott's 1,484. Two write-in votes were cast.

"It's not about a win or lose situation," she said. "It's about knowing it's done right."

Election rules say that Murphy would have to pay 25 cents per vote for a hand count of the ballots. That would cost $724.25. She, or anyone else who wants a recount, has two days to file a petition. If the recount changes the results, the county pays for it. It would cost $2,500 for a recount of the entire county.

"Unless I'm seeing any huge anomalies, I'll say 'Congratulations, Frank,'" she said.

McCarthy said the results will be posted at www.co.benton.ar.us within the next few days. He was working Monday on preparing for the Nov. 28 runoff election and said he hoped early voting could start Wednesday.

Early voting was scheduled to start Monday but was delayed in Benton County because of the uncertainty of the results.

McCarthy said he hoped to have the Election Commission certify the final set of results Thursday or Friday.

By the numbers

Runoff Elections

The Benton County Election Commission released recounted results Monday that changed the outcome of two runoffs. Final, unofficial results indicate runoffs Nov. 28 in the following races:

Bella Vista

Alderman Position 3

Judith S. Benn 2,796 31 percent

Doug Farner 4,234 47 percent

Alderman Position 4

George Holmes 1,730 20 percent

Stephanie Hacker 2,218 26 percent

Alderman, Position 5

Earl D. Berdine 2,272 26 percent

Beverly Bell 2,790 31 percent

Gravette

Mayor

Michael Charles vonRee 149 29 percent

Bill Howard* 157 30 percent

Lowell

Mayor

Phil Biggers* 609 42 percent

Perry Long 329 23 percent

City Clerk

Beverly C. Keown* 447 34 percent

Eric Hausserman 444 33 percent

Alderman Ward 2, Position 1

Ronald Breland 491 40 percent

Eric D. Schein 434 36 percent

Pea Ridge

Alderman Ward 2, Position 2

Martin Marler 196 26 percent

Guary Morgan 262 35 percent

Indicates the incumbent*

Souce: Benton County Election Commission