Results for the November general election will be certified on Nov. 26, but it could be nearly a month before the outcome in two local races are finalized. The 18th Legislative District Senate race and Clark County Councilor District 4 race are almost certainly headed for recounts.
“I don’t recall ever having two mandatory recounts in the same election,” Auditor Greg Kimsey said Friday.
County elections staff have nearly finished processing and counting the more than 278,000 ballots cast in the Nov. 5 general election. About 900 ballots still need to be processed. The remaining ballots to be counted are primarily those that need to be corrected because of a missing or illegible signature, a signature that doesn’t match the signature on file, or some other reason.
Two types of recounts are possible. One is a machine recount and the other is a manual recount. State law requires a machine recount when the difference between the top two candidates is fewer than 2,000 votes and also less than 0.5 percent of the total number of votes cast in the race.
A manual recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates is fewer than 150 votes and also less than 0.25 percent of the total votes cast for both candidates.
“The first thing we have to do is identify the ballots that have the race on them. Not all ballots have the 18th District race. Not all ballots have the county council District 4 race. We have to go through all of the batches of ballots that have been processed and pull out the ballots that have those races on them and then sort them down to the precinct level,” Kimsey said. “It’s a very laborious process.”
As elections staff are hand counting those ballots, the results are compared with the machine results, Kimsey said.
In a machine recount, Kimsey said elections staff only review the undervotes, that is, ballots where the voter didn’t select a candidate in that race, or the mark was unclear. In a manual recount, all votes in that race are reviewed.
The recounts will begin after the ballots are sorted and the election results are certified.
“A manual recount of a county council race could take two weeks. A machine recount of an 18th Legislative District could take … anywhere from a couple of days to more than a week,” Kimsey said.
In the 18th Legislative District, Democrat Adrian Cortes is holding onto his slight lead over Republican Brad Benton. As of Friday, Cortes had 41,814 votes to Benton’s 41,641 votes, a difference of 173 votes, or 0.42 percent of votes cast.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Benton said he had conceded the race and called Cortes to congratulate him on his win.
“Obviously, this is not the outcome we all wanted, especially given the amount of work my team and I put in to this campaign over these many months. I am proud of the campaign we ran,” Benton said in the post.
Kimsey said elections staff will still move forward with the recount in that race, as required by law.
In the Clark County Council District 4 race, Camas resident Matt Little is leading Vancouver farmer Joe Zimmerman by just 60 votes, a difference of 0.12 percent of votes cast. As of Friday, Little had 23,621 votes (49.67 percent) to Zimmerman’s 23,561 votes (49.55 percent).
While the 18th District race automatically qualifies for a machine recount, the county council race will likely require a manual recount.
Wil Fuentes, who won his county councilor District 3 race, said he will be happy with the results no matter which candidate ultimately wins.
“With only a 60-vote difference and 900 ballots left, it could go anywhere. I think they’re both great candidates. Whatever the results will be, I believe that it will be good for the county,” Fuentes said Friday.
Fuentes said he’s is eager to get to work come Jan. 1.
“I’m definitely ready to roll up my sleeves and start working for our community,” Fuentes said.
Another close race, but one that doesn’t qualify for a recount, is the county’s Charter Amendment 18 measure. The most recent results show voters rejecting the measure with 119,023 votes against and 118,765 in favor, a difference of 258 votes or 0.1 percent of votes cast.
Regardless of how close the results are, ballot measures do not qualify for an automatic recount. Kimsey said a recount is possible if five registered voters submit a request within two business days of the election certification and also pay for the recount.
