Candidate asks for hand recount in state GOP auditor primary

~ The winner still has a November election to win.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Second-place finisher Jack Jackson requested a statewide hand recount Thursday in Missouri's Republican auditor primary, tempering his hope by acknowledging a slim chance of actually reversing Sandra Thomas' victory.

The statewide recount is just the fourth requested since 1900.

It's unclear, however, whether Jackson will get his wish for a hand recount or whether it will instead be conducted with machines.

Jackson lost to Thomas by a mere 0.6 percentage points in the five-way Aug. 8 primary, receiving 84,942 votes, compared with Thomas' 86,786 votes. State law allows a runner-up to request a recount any time the margin is less 1 percentage point.

In Southeast Missouri, Jackson won the primary vote in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Scott counties. Also-ran candidate John Loudon won the balloting in Perry County. Thomas ran either second or third in all four counties.

State law does not spell out the method by which the recount must be conducted. And Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's office does not have any policy on that.

Deciding how to recount

Carnahan spokeswoman Stacie Temple said the office will try to balance "expediency with accuracy" in deciding how to do the recount.

Recounts in Cape Girardeau County have never overturned an election result, County Clerk Rodney Miller said. "Even when we had punch cards and we had a couple of recounts and found in the punch cards the" hanging "chad, we might have had one or two votes change," he said. "As far as the outcome, we have never had more than a one-vote change."

Jackson said he had received about 15 calls from people who had trouble voting on the electronic equipment used for the first time at many polling places.

"It sent up enough signals that I thought a hand recount was appropriate, and it's so close," said Jackson, of Wildwood, who serves in the state House.

Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott and Bollinger counties all use optical-scan equipment that counts paper ballots marked by voters. A hand recount would show if any votes were missed by the scanner because they didn't fill enough of the space for the vote, Miller said.

The scanner will accept the vote, he said, "if you have a significant mark in the oval. But if it goes outside the line, it may not and that is the only thing you will find in a hand count."

The local recount will take a day if it is done with scanning equipment, but could extend over a couple of days if a hand recount is ordered, Miller said.

Thomas, currently the Platte County auditor, said she respects Jackson's right to seek a recount. Under state law, both Jackson and Thomas can submit names of people to help in the recount. The candidates or their attorneys can also be present for the recount, which will have to be done in each of Missouri's 116 voting jurisdictions.

But Thomas said neither she nor her campaign supporters will participate in the recount.

"I don't have any concern about it," Thomas said. "We don't think it's going to change the outcome of anything."

'Still a candidate'

If the results hold up, Thomas will face Democratic Buchanan County Auditor Susan Montee, Libertarian Party candidate Charles Baum and Progressive Party candidate Terry Bunker.

State law requires the recount to be complete within 20 days -- in this case, by Sept. 13.

Jackson has continued to visit some events around the state. But he said that while the recount is pending he won't actively campaign by putting stickers on cars or riding in Labor Day parades.

State law allows for only one recount.

"Whatever this recount shows, I will accept," Jackson said. But "right now, I am still a candidate."

Missouri's last statewide recount occurred on the April 1994 defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given the legislature authority to specify which games were allowed on riverboat casinos. The ballot measure originally was shown as failing by a margin of 1,267 votes out of more than 1 million cast. The failing margin grew after the recount to 1,412 votes.

A recount in 1908 resulted in the overturning of the lieutenant governor's race. And a recount delayed the gubernatorial inauguration of Forrest C. Donnell after the 1940 election until that request was dropped.

Staff writer Rudi Keller contributed to this report.

On the Net

Secretary of State: www.sos.mo. gov

* Jackson: www.jackjackson.org

* Thomas: www.sandrathomascpa. com