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.

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