Cape County clerk hopes to avoid recount of presidential primary votes

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers hopes there won’t be a statewide recount of votes cast from Tuesday’s presidential primary.

A day after overseeing a primary election that drew nearly 40 percent of the county’s voters to the polls, Summers said Wednesday she is turning her attention to the municipal and school-board elections on the April 5 ballot.

Besides reviewing provisional ballots cast by people whose eligibility to vote still is being determined, Summers said she and her staff would have to recount thousands of ballots cast in Cape Girardeau County if there is a statewide recount.

Donald Trump defeated Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by less than one-half of 1 percent statewide. Trump topped Cruz by 1,726 votes, while Clinton outlasted Sanders by a 1,531-vote margin.

Election officials said recounts could occur in both races. According to Missouri law, a candidate who loses by such a close margin can seek a recount.

So far, none of the four candidates has requested a recount.

Summers said it is up to the Missouri secretary of state to instruct local election authorities as to any recounting of votes in a statewide contest.

A recount of votes can be time-consuming, Summers said. Every ballot would have to be reviewed by local election judges.

“Every ballot is touched by hand,” she said. “If they are clearly marked, they could go through the machine.”

Meanwhile, Summers and her staff are reviewing 51 provisional ballots that were cast Tuesday. The review should be completed by Friday, she said, adding the provisional ballots were the most she has seen in her 10 years as county clerk.

These ballots are cast by people who showed identification but whose eligibility could not be verified by election officials.

“They are saying they are registered,” Summers said of these county residents. They were allowed to vote provisional ballots. Those votes will not be counted unless their eligibility is confirmed, she said.

In some cases, such persons may be in the voter rolls under different names. In other cases, these voters may have been taken off the rolls after failing to vote in two consecutive federal election cycles, she said.

A number of voters who went to the polls had not voted since 2008, Summers said.

Election judges saw many voters who failed to update their addresses, slowing the voting process at times, she said. Voters who were found to have moved to a different precinct were directed to their proper precinct to cast their ballots.

More than 20,000 Cape Girardeau County residents voted in the primary. Republican ballots accounted for nearly 16,000 of the votes.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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