Election recount is under way in St. Joseph County

November 22, 2010|By MARGARET FOSMOE, Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND — Stack by stack, ballot by ballot, the county election recount got under way this morning.

A five-member recount commission is hand-counting ballots cast for county clerk and county assessor in the Nov. 2 election.

The group is gathering in a cinder-block meeting room in a warehouse on South Olive Street.

At mid-morning, they were part way through counting results from a single precinct. There are 230 precincts in St. Joseph County.

Republican Jack Smith and Democrat Ryan Deeter together are counting the ballots cast for assessor. Republican Murray Winn and Democrat Debbie Ladyga-Block are counting the ballots cast for clerk.

"They’ll lay out all the ballots and manual count each," explained Keith McGinnis, of RBM Consulting LLC. The firm has a contract with St. Joseph County to provide services in support of election equipment and processes.

The ballot counting could take as long as a couple of weeks, McGinnis said.

The commission will count ballots all day Tuesday and during the morning Wednesday before breaking for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Rev. David Link, a Catholic priest and former dean of the University of Notre Dame Law School, is overseeing the commission as chairman.

Several observers representing the candidates are watching as each ballot is counted.

The Republican Party requested recounts in the clerk and assessor races within days of the general election because of the close margin of victory in each race.

In the assessor race, Democrat Rosemary Mandrici defeated Republican Randy Clark by 208 votes. In the clerk race, Democrat Terri Rethlake defeated Republican Cindy Bachota by 77 votes.

By law, the deadline to complete the recounts is Dec. 20.

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