As the Election Authority, I supervise the discovery recount.  In that capacity, I faciliate the review of ballots and other election materials for the person requesting the discovery recount.  We also conduct a redundant hand count of ballots.  Nevertheless, my observations are just that; observations.  What I say here in no way is binding upon a candidate or a court and is not dispositive.

With those caveats, I can tell you that my observation is that the hand count of ballots in Bondville was the same as the computer count reflected in the final canvass.  WDWS was here and interviewed Karl Kennicker.  You can listen to them to find out what he is going to do from here.

A discovery recount (10 ILCS 5/22-9.1) is a provision of Illinois election law that allows a loser in an election who comes within 5% of the winner to review the ballots, applications, and other documents for up to 25% of the precincts of the jurisdiction in which they were a candidate. The candidate requesting the discovery recount selects the precincts.  As part of the discovery process, a redundant recount is generally conducted which involves a hand count of the ballots for the selected precincts.

Champaign County will have two discovery recounts this year.  One is for the Bondville Village President’s race (April 30 at 1:00) which was decided by a single vote.   The other is for the Champaign School Board race (May 1 at 8:30) which was decided by two votes.   We have had a number of discovery recounts since I’ve been County Clerk.  None has revealed any discrepancies between the hand count and machine count of ballots.  Two of those discovery recounts occurred since we implemented the new optical scan voting equipment.

Any results of the discovery recount will not change the results of the election.  Rather, the discovery recount is just a gathering of information that a candidate can bring to a judge to request an election contest be conducted.  An election contest, if granted by a judge, would normally result in a full recount of all ballots in the race.

Our retabulation of votes showed just two ballots where voters used an “X” or other mark instead of filling in the oval.  That is an error rate of under .2%.  Even then, there is a significant chance that the machine will count those ballots that a voter marks incorrectly.  While the error rate is small, it obviously could have an impact in either of these contests.

Personally, I would like Illinois law to mandate a redundant recount in races this close.  I know the machines count accurately and I know that almost all voters mark their ballots correctly.  But in races this close, it would be good to examine each ballot to make sure that the actual will of the voters has been expressed in the final result.

After each election, state statute requires each county to “retabulate” 5% of the precincts.  The retabulation doesn’t really accomplish much.  However, in Champaign County we have extended that process by conducting a hand count of select races in each of the 6 randomly selected precincts selected by the State Board of Elections for our County.  You can see the results of the retabulation here.

The Green and Republican Parties did not send representatives to the retabulation.  As such, members of my staff selected the races to be hand counted for them.

The results came out largely the same, except for a single vote discrepancy in Champaign 5.  You can see the two ballots in that precinct that were oddly marked.

As in the past, the hand count of ballots demonstrates that our voting machines are counting accurately.

And an examination of the ballots shows that voters are doing a great job of following the instructions and filling in the oval.    Out of 1,108 ballots cast in these precincts, just two marked their ballots with an X or check mark.

Please let me know of any problems, questions, concerns or suggestions.  Things look like their going pretty well, but I’d love some feedback.

After a long day, staff is starting to go home.  A few judges remain and are feeding the last of the remade ballots into the absentee boxes.

Early and absentee voting will commence as normal tomorrow (complete with error detection for your ballot) and I have every confidence that the election will proceed without a hitch.