Hand recount in sheriff's race changes six votes, with no effect on outcome

A $31,000 hand recount of the Kitsap County sheriff's race completed Tuesday resulted in switching six votes, making no change in the race Democrat John Gese won with more than 58% of the vote.

In the recount of 124,242 ballots paid for by a group of supporters of Republican Rick Kuss, Gese added one vote and Kuss scored an additional five votes.

The new results show Gese defeated Kuss 58.13% to 41.87%, or 70,629 votes to 50,880 votes.

William B. Campbell of Bremerton led the group of six voters who requested the recount and paid the $31,000 deposit in cash.

In a related matter, a spokeswoman for the state’s campaign finance regulator, the Public Disclosure Commission, advised the group to register with the commission and report its expenditures and contributions for the recount. The money could also count as contributions to Kuss’ campaign, she said.

In a statement provided to the Kitsap Sun on Tuesday, Campbell said the sole purpose of requesting the recount was to ensure that the Hart Intercivic Tabulator used by the Kitsap County Elections Department was accurately tallying votes.

Campbell wrote that he was satisfied that the machines counted ballots accurately, that elections staff was transparent and helpful and that the adjudication process for ballots was valid.

“I greatly respect their knowledge and expertise and am convinced they are conducting our elections as prescribed by the law,” Campbell wrote in the statement.

Kuss, who said he was not involved in the recount request except to help the group raise money, said the results showed the machines are not perfect.

“It shows that there are errors in the tabulation machines,” Kuss said. “It’s not significant enough to change a large race but it’s something the company should look further into to keep these things from occurring in the future.”

Kuss also said the results gave him some confidence in the outcomes of local elections.

“It supports that on a large scale we can trust the tabulation machines,” he said. “I think that was the ultimate goal of the recount.”

Auditor Paul Andrews, the county's chief elections officer, said that when closely examining ballots there are usually a handful that switch, which is why tight races automatically trigger labor-intensive and costly hand recounts.

The last time the office performed a hand recount was in 2018, for a close legislative race.

Recounting November’s sheriff’s election, a county-wide election, amounted to the largest recount in Kitsap County history.

“It’s where I expected we would be,” Andrews said of the results. “I know the software we use, and the process and procedures, are all good. They are solid. They produce accurate numbers.”

In a prepared statement issued Tuesday evening, Andrews noted the changed votes were due to ballots not being correctly filled out.

"It is important to follow the directions on your ballot when marking boxes and making changes after a box is filled in," he wrote. "With all of the concern people have with voting systems and accuracy, this was a great opportunity to build trust with voters and show that the people who conduct elections and the equipment we use have integrity and are accountable."

In the revised results, Gese added one vote that had been erroneously tallied as an undervote – an election term for leaving the space blank – and Kuss earned five more votes, one from a write-in incorrectly tallied and three from undervotes.

Kuss also scored one additional vote from an overvote, an election term for when more than one candidate is selected. In that case, the machine did not recognize that a voter originally voted for Gese but then canceled that vote but did not follow the instructions for a correction and then voted for Kuss.

In one of the votes that switched from an undervote to a vote for Kuss, Andrews said it appeared the voter started filling out their ballot with a pen that was running out of ink.

By the time the voter arrived at the sheriff’s race and filled in the slot for Kuss, the pen’s ink had become faint compared with the ink used to vote in other races.

About 35 workers contributed to the recount, working about six and a half days starting Dec. 12, with counters working in teams of two. First workers reconciled the ballots on hand to the machine count then moved on to counting. The actual counting took less than three days.

Andrews said the final cost of the recount has not been tallied, but he expects the tab to be roughly the amount of the $31,000 deposit.

Kim Bradford, a spokeswoman for the Public Disclosure Commission, wrote that the commission had not encountered this kind of recount before and that paying for recounts is a campaign activity normally funded by candidates or parties and disclosed to the commission.

“If a group other than the candidate or party is pooling funds or soliciting contributions to fund a recount, (commission) staff would advise the group to also register a political committee and file contribution and expenditure reports,” Bradford wrote in an email to the Kitsap Sun. “Additionally, if the recount campaign is coordinated with a candidate, it could qualify a group's expenditures as campaign contributions that need to be reported by the candidate's committee.”

Bradford said she could not comment on whether any laws had been broken, saying that determination is made by the commission and follows a formal complaint. The commission has not received a complaint, she said.

Kuss said it was the group of his supporters’ decision on whether to register as a political action committee, or PAC, and disclose their finances to the commission.

“For me this doesn’t involve any finances, so I don’t have any intent of claiming any of this or registering,” Kuss said.

In an email to the Kitsap Sun, Campbell said he had inquired with the commission and attempted to register the group but asked it for further guidance.

“I will register as a PAC if it is required by law,” Campbell wrote, but noted that he saw the group that had been fundraising through a crowd-sourcing website and the group of voters who requested the recount as distinct groups.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Hand recount in sheriff's race changes six votes, no effect on winner