I’m hearing there’s a lot happening with legislative recounts resulting from the primary election.
In District 9 House, I’m hearing Bethany Soye picked up 3 votes to strengthen her lead to 11 votes over her opponent Michael Clark. No word on challenges. (Update – according to Michael Clark, he “congratulated Mrs Soye, shook hands, then handed her a check for a campaign contribution.“)
In District 17 Senate, I heard from several sources that Art Rusch lost 2 ballots in Turner County, narrowing his lead to 4 votes over Nancy Rasmussen, but today Clay County came in holding numbers. There are 5 days for that to be challenged after it’s officially filed, so that may yet be coming.
I’m hearing word from several sources that the District 19 House race is actually in flux.. so wait for the official on that..
What I was told was that one of the auditors located ballots that had erroneously not been counted. The number of votes for Overweg weren’t close to what you would expect to be able to flip the race in his favor, as there was a lot of distance between he and Jessica Bahmuller – more than a recount might have been expected to change.
But hang on – as is being noted elsewhere, there were a lot of votes found, which completely changed the outcome.
On primary election night, Bahmuller finished second to Kent Peterson in the District 19 vote count, tallying 1,741 votes to best Marty Overweg by 21 votes. The top-two vote-getters earned seats in the Legislature. But on Monday, Bahmuller was told there was a discrepancy in the final numbers. There were 86 votes not counted on election night from Douglas County and one not counted from Hutchinson County.
Unofficially, Bahmuller was told there were no changes in Bon Homme, Hanson and McCook counties and one vote changed in Hutchinson County. In Douglas County, there were 52 additional votes for Marty Overweg, 23 for Kent Peterson and 11 for Bahmuller. The new tallies put Overweg ahead of Bahmuller by 20 votes and, if accurate, would give Overweg the spot in the Legislature.
Er… not found but mis-reported? Ugh. What a mess. And both candidates involved are nice people. There are no winners in a screw up like this.
I’d expect that one will end up in a courthouse for further argument.
The rumor is that they found some I counted votes in District 19 that put Overweg over the top. Surprising if true.
These represent an interesting early look at the prospects of managing a clean mail-in ballot election.
In my view, if you don’t show-up in person for the most important function in our civic society, with some obvious absentee exceptions, you don’t get to spend your election currency.
So much machination – we knew this would be a crazy one!
“found”
“YIKES”
Just a little under four years ago, a certain county in FL that was trucking in ballots was exposed and stopped. Who paid the price?
Nobody that I can figure .. so, with no consequence, we should see rampant repeating of the practice with modifications.
Is it time for voter ID?
We have voter ID in SD. We need people not to screw up.
Voter ID? But the left says that is blatant vote suppression of minority voters. You mean that isn’t true?
There was a certain senator in minnesota that was declared the winner of an election after a bunch of ballots were “found” in the trunk of a car some time after the election, and that one senator gave us Obamacare. We need voter ID, in person voting except for certain few reasons, and any votes submitted or found after election day are not valid.
The left is scared of voter ID because it will take away the edge they have-corrupt voting.
I have heard stupid comments about how voter ID is voter suppression and that the cost to voters themselves is what makes it suppression. Typical socialist tripe.
This has nothing to do with mail-in ballots or IDs. If there was an error reporting to the state system on election night, it should have been caught when the county commission canvassed the election returns. They should have checked the results and matched them to the poll books and the number of absentee ballots cast. Then they would have noticed a problem with the math. County commissions that just rubber stamp the Auditor’s report when approving the canvass, instead of doing what they’re actually supposed to do, are skipping over an important step in the election process.
Good comment, but there appears to be an even bigger issue in play. Bahmuller’s Douglas County total was nearly 40 percent of Overweg’s in the original count, but it was barely 20 percent of Overweg’s in the newly “found” votes. The odds against that much variation in a large, 86-vote sample are extremely long.