Jackson County Experiences Unexplained Ballot-count Problems in 2006 Election

November 10, 2006

Ballot-count glitch affects Ashland race

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune

Jackson County election officials are scrambling to resolve a computer snafu spotted by a local citizen that could alter the outcome of at least one Ashland City Council race and one bond measure.

“We realized that when we were looking at reports that something was wrong,” said County Clerk Kathy Beckett. In one Ashland precinct, the computer system “added votes from some races and put it in others.”

Results posted on the Jackson County Web site could be hundreds of votes off because of the computer glitch. The discrepancies could affect the race between Greg Lemhouse and Eric Navickas. Current election results give Navickas a 65-vote advantage.

A bond measure for the Ashland Fire Department aerial truck is leading by only 176 votes and might also be affected.

Ashland resident Brandon Goldman, who has a penchant for statistics, noticed a discrepancy in the numbers late Tuesday night and alerted county election officials.

“I stayed up quite late,” he said.

Goldman added up the “yes” and “no” votes as well as the undervotes and overvotes in one of the races and compared the total with the number of ballots cast in Ashland — 9,233, according to the county’s Web site — and discovered the two totals didn’t match.

In the Lemhouse-Navickas race, the count only added up to 8,780, a discrepancy of 453 votes.

But Goldman isn’t sure the 9,233 ballots is a correct number either, so he can’t be sure how far off the count might be.

Although he’s concerned about getting it right, he said he thinks the Elections Office eventually will straighten things out.

“I think that if the county was not responsive with the question, I wouldn’t have any confidence,” he said. “Since Florida (in 2000), we as a nation are all cautious that the elections are accurate.”

Beckett said the problem has been narrowed down to Precinct 2 in Ashland, which is above Siskiyou Boulevard from the northern boundary of the city up to Ashland Street.

After reviewing other precincts throughout the county, Beckett said she thinks the problem is confined to the Ashland precinct and shouldn’t affect the outcome of other races or measures in the county, although it could change the number of votes.

She said the Elections Office used to tally votes by precinct throughout the county, but now does it as they come in, which further complicates resolving the Precinct 2 problem.

The Precinct 2 ballots will have to be extracted, then rerun, she said.

Unlike the rest of the county, Ashland’s ballot ran two pages.

There are 3,464 registered voters in Precinct 2, but 2,240 ballots were sent in for Page 1 of the ballot and 2,393 were sent in for Page 2.

However, Beckett said that in some races, the computer appears to be adding votes, while in other races subtracting them, although even that is difficult to determine.

After learning about the ballot problem, Lemhouse said, “My big concern is that everyone’s vote is counted,” adding he wanted to wait until an official, final ballot count is issued before he concedes or declares victory.

Navickas said, “I have faith in Kathy Beckett’s office that they will get a solid count on the votes.”

Although he thinks he will be victorious, Navickas said, “I guess I have to wait at this point.”

Elections officials, who will certify the results on Nov. 27, conducted tests before ballots went out to make sure everything worked correctly on the computer system provided by the company Elections System and Software.

“Why this didn’t show up in the test — we test this stuff until we are blue in the face,” Beckett said.

_____________________________________________

November 11, 2006

Ashland ballot recount continues
Cause of election computer glitch still undetermined

By Meg Landers
Mail Tribune

The outcome of the race between Eric Navickas and Greg Lemhouse for Ashland City Council was still up in the air Friday as Jackson County elections officials continued to pull out all the ballots for Precinct 2 for a recount.

County Clerk Kathy Beckett said the recount should be complete early next week, though the cause of the problem remained unknown.

"It's still a mystery to us," Beckett said.

Final unofficial results posted on the Jackson County Web site seemed to be hundreds of votes off in Ashland. The discrepancies could affect the Navickas/Lemhouse race, which hinges on a 65-vote difference.

Lemhouse had been ahead by three to five percentage points on three reports throughout election night but lost in the unofficial final results posted at 3 a.m. Wednesday.

A bond measure for the Ashland Fire Department aerial truck, which had been failing throughout the night but was leading by 176 votes in the 3 a.m. report, might also be affected by the recount.

The 3 a.m. final unofficial results have been removed from the county Web site and have been replaced with the 11 p.m. Tuesday report. The report may be viewed at www.jacksoncounty.org.

Beckett said elections officials have audited the other precincts and stand by those results.

"Everything else looks good," she said.

For a time on Friday, elections officials thought a power outage on Tuesday night might have caused the problem. A car wreck damaged a power pole along Highway 238 and knocked out electricity to 2,097 homes in the Jacksonville and Applegate areas. But Pacific Power officials told Beckett Friday afternoon the outage would have had no effect on Medford, because the substation in Ruch and the substation in Medford are served by different sources.

"The power glitch theory is not valid at this point," said Beckett at the end of the day Friday. She said it was not caused by employee error, either, adding, "It's in the program."

Defeated candidates in two close races, both of whom lost 49 to 51 percent, said news of the glitch does not make them question the county Elections Office.

"If Kathy Beckett says it's good, it's good," said Mike Moran, who lost the race for District 6 state representative to incumbent Sal Esquivel. "I think if there's a problem, she'll find it."

Tim George, who lost the race for Jackson County sheriff to incumbent Mike Winters, shared a similar view.

"This is not her first rodeo," he said. "Kathy Beckett knows what she's doing."

Though no candidates have requested a recount, Beckett said it's too early for that conversation. The deadline for certifying the election is Nov. 27.

"We want to talk about recounts after the 27th," she said.

________________________________________________

November 14, 2006

Who wins the race in Ashland?
Problems with ballot count continue to confound county elections officials; Navickas-Lemhouse race up in air

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune

Jackson County elections officials were still mystified Monday over a ballot miscount in an Ashland precinct that has left one City Council race up in the air.

County Clerk Kathy Beckett was hoping to tally up the results Monday, but problems with election scanning equipment continued to bedevil her staff, leaving the Ashland City Council race between Eric Navickas and Greg Lemhouse too close to call with Lemhouse only 245 votes ahead.

"There are things going on with these machines that shouldn't happen," said Beckett, who nevertheless expressed confidence that the final results would be accurate.

Two new Elections System and Software 550 scanning machines have been put out of commission because they were involved in the miscount of Precinct 2 in Ashland, which is above Siskiyou Boulevard from the northern boundary of the city up to Ashland Street.

In addition, ballots jammed during the election as they were fed into the four 550 counting scanners, creating headaches for Elections Center staff.

And though the Elections Center upgraded the machines to read blue ink and black ink, the scanners didn't work as Beckett had hoped.

"They said they would count blue ink, but it counts some blue ink but not all," she said. "We found out that the black Bic pens had too much red in them." The scanners don't read red, so these ballots had to be counted manually.

As a result of the problems, Beckett said voters may have to go back to using No. 2 pencils to fill in their ballots in future elections.

Beckett said extensive testing was conducted on the equipment before the election and all the systems worked flawlessly. However, ballots sent to the Elections Center by voters had been folded, stuffed in envelopes or had been damaged, a situation that wasn't replicated during the testing procedure. "We didn't test ballots that had coffee stains on them," said Beckett.

She said she doubted the certified count issued Nov. 27 will change the outcome of any races outside Ashland. "I don't think so, but I don't know that for a fact," she said.

Beckett is prepared for a likely recount in the Lemhouse/Navickas race. "There will be a recount in that race I can almost guarantee that now," she said. Navickas had pulled ahead in a later count that has since been disqualified because of the problems with Precinct 2.

Jackson County Elections Supervisor Donna Connor personally ran the ballots for Precinct 2 in Ashland Monday, constantly monitoring the systems in a painstaking effort to detect even the slightest hiccup.

Connor said the sort of problem that popped up on election night was similar to what occurs after a power outage. "But, there is no evidence of a power outage" occurring in the Elections Center, she said.

The computer appeared to add votes in some races in Ashland, while in others subtracted them, although even that was difficult to determine.

Elections officials spent the weekend pulling out the Ashland Precinct 2 ballots that were interspersed in the other ballots received during the election.

We're exhausted," said Beckett. "But we'll get through this."

Meanwhile, workers were sifting through the stacks of ballots that couldn't be read by the machines.

Medford resident Roseann Wagner, a Democrat, and her Republican counterpart, Nancy Irwin of Medford, on Monday tried to decipher a ballot that had gotten wet and wrinkled. They also looked at other problem ballots, including some in which a voter had crossed out a choice.

Wagner and Irwin said they both have to approve the interpretation of a voter's intent before the ballot can be recalculated.

"That's the way it works," said Wagner. "We have to agree."

___________________________________________________________

November 15, 2006

Navickas wins. Again. Unless there's a recount
Ashland City Council opponent Lemhouse is considering asking for a recount

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune

Facing the prospect of a recount, Jackson County elections officials overcame a week of equipment problems Tuesday to determine that Eric Navickas is the apparent winner of the Ashland City Council race.

Navickas garnered 4,342 votes to opponent Greg Lemhouse's 4,150, according to new ballot totals released by the Jackson County Elections Center after a prolonged battle with balky ballot scanners.

"These machines have just been the death of us," said County Clerk Kathy Beckett.

Because of irregularities that have popped up in the election process, Lemhouse said he is considering asking for a recount.

"I'm going to talk it over with folks, but for peace of mind I think a lot of people would want a recount," said Lemhouse.

During the Nov. 7, results for Precinct 2 in the northwest portion of Ashland didn't match up with the number of ballots received.

As a result, elections officials had to pull all the Precinct 2 ballots that were mixed in with ballots from throughout the county. These ballots were run back through the scanning machines to come up with new totals.

Navickas said he feels confident in elections officials and thinks the entire process was scrutinized carefully.

He said he could understand why his opponent would want a recount, considering all the election irregularities.

"But I think we need to move forward with this election," he said. "The voters have spoken."

Dr. Lora Chamberlain, founder of the newly formed Southwest Oregon Election Protection Project, said there have been too many problems in this election to rely on the machines that caused them.

"I've recommended to her (Beckett) and to Lemhouse and to Navickas to have a hand count," Chamberlain said.

A radio show host on KSKQ in Ashland, Chamberlain has been a voting rights activist in other states.

Beckett didn't discount what Chamberlain said.

"She's got concerns like anybody else does," said Beckett. "I think she has valid concerns."

Beckett said she's talked to other county clerks in Southern Oregon who also had problems with scanners jamming. She plans to bring the matter up at a meeting with other county clerks in Eugene today.

She stressed that the election results are still not official until they are certified on Nov. 27.

Initially, elections officials thought a power outage in Jacksonville and the Applegate and subsequent rerouting of power had caused the problem, but later discounted that idea.

Now, Beckett said she just received new information from election workers that a brownout did occur shortly after midnight in the auditorium at the councy Elections Center on West Main Street in Medford.

Beckett said she hadn't been notified of the brownout at the time.

Talent resident Betty Welburn, who is on the main election board, said the power dip just after midnight on election night caused a stir among workers.

"It was enough to startle you, particularly in a building with no windows," she said. "It could have been enough to cause a computer to glitch."

Welburn said she and other workers assumed Beckett knew about the problem.

Despite the difficulties over the past week, Welburn said she isn't worried about the final results for the election.

Referring to Beckett, Welburn said, "She has our utmost confidence."

______________________________________________________

Nov 28, 2006

Election recount set for Ashland precinct

By Damian Mann
Ashland Mail Tribune

Election officials will conduct a manual recount of one Ashland precinct on Thursday to help put to rest concerns over an unexplained malfunction in ballot scanners.

"It made good sense to do one in light of the glitch we had in Precinct 2," said County Clerk Kathy Beckett.

During the Nov. 7 election, the vote count for Precinct 2 in the northwest portion of Ashland didn't match up with the number of ballots received, which has left the City Council race between Eric Navickas and Greg Lemhouse still unsettled.

Beckett said though she is confident the problem was resolved, she decided to hold the recount for everyone's peace of mind.

"It's being done to make sure the vote tabulation is sound," she said.

Beckett expects there will be a little variation between the hand count and machine count, but probably not enough to make a difference in the outcome of the races. "There will be a slight change, but there always is," she said.

Election officials released their final election count on Monday, but it didn't change the outcome of any race or measure. The county had a legal obligation to certify the election on Nov. 27, after which a recount could be held.

The Medford school bond, another closely watched measure, passed in the final count by 15,011 to 14,698, or 313 votes.

In the Ashland City Council race, Lemhouse has 4,262 votes to Navickas' 4,496, a 235-vote lead.

Elections officials will only recount 2,700 ballots in Ashland's Precinct 2. Of these, 1,228 were cast for Lemhouse and 1,229 for Navickas, with the remainder being undervotes, overvotes and write-ins.

Navickas expressed confidence he's the victor, but still supports the recount.

"Because of the discrepancies it's a good thing to do at this point," he said, adding, "I'm excited to see the difference between the hand count and the machine count — just for academic purposes."

Lemhouse said he's still considering asking for a recount for the entire city of Ashland but will wait to see if there are any surprises in the recount Thursday.

He said it's too early to call the race with so many lingering questions.

"If it's important enough for her (Beckett) to call for a recount, it's important for us to wait and see what happens," he said.

Lora Chamberlain, founder of the newly formed Southwest Oregon Election Protection Project, applauded Beckett for seeking a recount, but expressed concerns about relying so heavily on machines to determine the outcome of elections.

"We are not claiming fraud," she said. "The number one problem with the machines is they are machines."

Chamberlain, a radio show host on KSKQ in Ashland, said voting is the single most important thing a citizen can do, and it is important that voters feel confident in the system.

Chamberlain said members of her Election Protection Project would like not only to observe the recount on Thursday but be on the tally boards.

Beckett said the tally boards will be made up of eight citizens who are not from Ashland and who have been trained in looking over ballots.

The counting will start at 9 a.m. Beckett is hoping to be finished before 5 p.m.

Voting has never been a precise science. Beckett remembers when the state used punch-card ballots, which sometimes caused problems because of "hanging chads" — the same problems that plagued the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential race.

The ballot scanner problems of Nov. 7 still have not been isolated, but Beckett said an investigation of the equipment is being conducted by both the Secretary of State's Office and Elections System and Software, which provided the ballot scanners.

Representatives from the Secretary of State's Office might be on hand to observe the recount, said Beckett.

______________________________________________

December 1, 2006

Ashland recount changes little in contested City Council race
Lemhouse, supporters call for more thorough recount

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune

A hand recount of one Ashland precinct Thursday showed only a minor discrepancy from earlier machine counts and didn't change the outcome in a hotly contested City Council race.

The results confirmed that environmental activist Eric Navickas had prevailed in the race by more than 200 votes.

But his opponent, Greg Lemhouse, said that because of the many irregularities that occurred during the original machine count, all 9,752 ballots cast in the Ashland race should be recounted. Thursday's hand recount included only the 2,703 ballots cast in the city's Precinct 2.

"Even if I lose by more, it's worth doing," said Lemhouse, a Medford police officer. "People need to have confidence in this process."

After six hours of poring over ballots, elections officials found three more votes overall than shown in the original machine count and a slight difference in the votes cast for each candidate.

In Precinct 2, Navickas received 1,228 votes, one fewer than in the earlier count, while Lemhouse received 1,233, a gain of four over the earlier count. The remaining ballots represented write-ins, undervotes and overvotes.

Because the hand recount showed only a small change, that indicated the vote-counting system had worked correctly, Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett said.

In results released earlier this week, prior to the recount, Navickas led Lemhouse 4,261 to 4,496, a 235-vote margin.

The recount of the Nov. 7 election results came after election officials discovered the vote count for Precinct 2 in the northwest portion of Ashland didn't match the number of ballots received.

Navickas said Thursday he found the entire process objective. "It was real fool-proof," he said. "There was lots of double checking."

Beckett said the recount cost $340, representing hiring eight workers for about six hours.

She said if Lemhouse wanted a recount of all Ashland precincts he would have to pay $15 per precinct. He also would be charged for the time it takes for the recount, unless the results show him to be the winner.

"If it flips, then he won't have to pay," she said.

Beckett said that if the recount of Precinct 2 had shown a 30 to 40 vote discrepancy compared with the machine count, then she would have ordered a recount of all Ashland precincts in that race.

She said it remains a mystery why ballot scanning equipment malfunctioned on election night during the Precinct 2 count.

Lemhouse supporter Marie Donovan of Ashland, one of the observers during the recount, said that while there was only a minor difference in the result, she thought the entire city should be hand counted.

She said she and other supporters were puzzled that early election results showed Lemhouse with a significant lead, which vanished after the problems with the Precinct 2 count.

"There was no real explanation what went wrong," she said.

To allay any concerns about the election, Donovan said, one more tally is in order.

"I think his supporters want a hand recount," she said. "Just do it."

_________________________________________________

December 7, 2006

Final recount shows Navickas is winner
He defeated Ashland City Council challenger Greg Lemhouse by a 217-vote margin

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune

Greg Lemhouse congratulated Eric Navickas Wednesday as the victor in an Ashland City Council race after a hand recount of all precincts in the city showed only a slight change in totals.

"I'm satisfied," said Lemhouse. "We're all in agreement that you have to have a good final conclusion so you have confidence in the election system."

Lemhouse requested the recount after a ballot scanner malfunction in Ashland's Precinct 2 initially produced an erroneous report. The county last week recounted that precinct and then, at Lemhouse's request, recounted all the ballots cast in the Nov. 7 council race.

Navickas knitted socks while watching 16 election workers recount the ballots Wednesday. He was one of several observers at the Jackson County Election Center.

"I'm glad we went through the whole process because of the glitch on election night," he said.

He also said he understood why his opponent wanted to have the recount.

While he expressed confidence in the process, he added, "In the future we should look to audits through hand counts to ensure the machines are accurately calculating the results."

In Wednesday's tally, Navickas won by a count of 4,502 to 4,285, a 217-vote margin.

Under the previous count, Navickas led Lemhouse 4,496 to 4,261, a 235-vote difference.

"I'm glad that we did it," said County Clerk Kathy Beckett. "It ensures the fact that the vote tabulation system is calculating accurately."

She said the slight discrepancy between the machine and hand counts is expected. Because of these expected discrepancies, a recount is automatically called when the difference in votes between the candidates amounts to one-fifth of 1 percent or less.

"This didn't come anywhere near that," said Beckett.

The total number of ballots, originally calculated at 9,752 for all five Ashland precincts, increased to 9,977 during the hand recount. The amount included 47 write-ins, 942 undervotes and one overvote.

Lemhouse will pay the cost of having 16 people work through the day to recount the ballots, which Beckett estimates will be about $1,200.

Lemhouse said it was worth the price.

"Eric deserves to go forward knowing he won the election," he said.