Recountable: April Elections Bring Disputed Vote Totals

In Florissant’s Ward 6 council election, Patrick Stinnett edged Steve Purgahn by the narrowest of margins, 470 to 469. Board of education races were decided by less than 1 percent of the vote in the Mehlville and Rockwood school districts.

April municipal elections are tailor-made for recounts since they often have relatively low voter turnouts.

“It seems like we do a recount almost every election,” said Republican Director of Elections Joseph Goeke. “We almost always have one in April elections.”

The Board of Elections also has a Democrat director of elections, Joseph Donahue.

According to Missouri state law, courts must grant a recount at a candidate’s request if the election is decided by less than 1 percent of the ballots cast. Candidates must wait until after the results are certified, and then they have 30 days to make the request. Tuesday’s ballot will be certified on April 19.

Candidates can request a recount if they lose by more than 1 percent of the vote, but Goeke said that has not happened in St. Louis County in his six years as Republican director of elections.

“If it’s more than 1 percent, there’s all kinds of things you have to prove,” Goeke said. “You have an unbelievable burden to prove that a recount is warranted. That just doesn’t happen.”

Goeke recalled about 10 recounts during his six years as elections director. One of the biggest recounts was the 2008 Missouri attorney general’s race, when Chris Koster narrowly beat Margaret Donnelly by 0.2 percent of the vote--or 738 votes.

None of those 10 recounts changed an election result--although a couple have changed the vote totals by a vote or two.

In Tuesday’s Mehlville School District election, voters selected three school board members. In that race, Mark Stoner clipped David A. Wessel by less than half a percentage, 12.68 percent to 12.2 percent. Stoner received 3,802 votes and Wessel had 3,657.

However, Goeke said it would be futile for Wessel to request a recount.

That’s because about 85 percent of all voters opt to use the touch screen system, he said. No touch screen ballot has ever been overturned, although they are double-checked in a recount.

Usually, any vote total changes occur due to votes cast on paper – the optical scanner, he said. Occasionally, someone will put an ‘X’ inside the oval instead of coloring it in, and the scanner does not pick up the mark.

Statistically, there is one change for every 1,300 optical scans, he said.

Goeke compared the touch screen process to adding numbers using a calculator.

“As long as the numbers are entered correctly, you get the same answer every time,” he said. “With the touch screen, the computer has entered the numbers, and it’s just totaling up the numbers like a calculator.”

He noted in the Florissant election, 939 votes were cast for the two candidates in question.

“So, you would think you would need to find one vote out of 939,” Goeke said. “That’s not true. Of that, 744 were on touch screen; 195 votes were on paper (optical scan or absentee ballots). Out of those 195 ballots, you might change one vote.”

That’s why Goeke said he believes a recount may be warranted in the Florissant Ward 6 race.

However, the Mehlville Board of Education race was decided by 145 votes. In the Rockwood election, Stephen D. Smith beat Michael (Mike) Geller by 284 votes.

“There’s no way you’ll change more than five votes,” Goeke said.