Cause of ballot-count glitch still unclear

The results of the race for Ashland City Council Position 2 hang in the balance as Jackson County elections officials re-run more than 2,000 ballots.

Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett said her office still doesn't know what caused a computer glitch that skewed the ballot count in one Ashland precinct.

Friday, the County Elections Office was sifting through Ashland ballots and taking out those from Precinct 2 — where the problem was identified.

"We're currently in the process of going through all the batches that we ran election night," Beckett said Friday. "We're eliminating the votes from Precinct 2 and re-running those."

She said the elections office would try to issue updated results next week. Final results should come out Nov. 17.

A discrepancy occurred Tuesday night when ballots from the Ashland precinct above Siskiyou Boulevard and northwest of Southern Oregon University were counted incorrectly. Unlike the rest of the county, Ashland voters had two-page ballots. In Precinct 2, where 3,464 voters are registered, 2,240 page 1 ballots were returned, and 2,393 page 2 ballots were returned. Final election results showed 9,233 total votes counted in Ashland but only 8,780 reported for the Navickas and Lemhouse race (Position 2).

A software glitch in a new computer system designed to tally the two-page ballots may have caused a bizarre occurrence where votes from some races were added on to others, Beckett said. It is unclear where the glitch originated and why it was confined to Precinct 2.

"Everything on that 3 a.m. update is such a mess, it's hard to tell," Beckett said.

Friday, elections officials thought an accident Tuesday night on Highway 238 — where a car hit an electric pole — could have caused a power surge creating the problem. Pacific Power representatives assured them that was not the problem.

Ashland resident Brandon Goldman identified the discrepancy Tuesday and notified the elections office. Another Ashland resident, Michael Hays, contacted Beckett about the problem also. After looking through the audits, the elections office narrowed the problem down to Precinct 2.

Because the elections office tallies votes as they come in rather than by precinct, extracting the Precinct 2 votes would require elections officials to go through all of the votes and extract those from the specific precinct, Beckett said.

All election results posted up until the final 3 a.m. update were accurate, Beckett said.

After the second election night update, Lemhouse was ahead by 245 votes. The 3 a.m. update showed Navickas ahead by 65 votes.

The updated results could sway the race either way. It could also affect the results of a $900,000 bond for an aerial ladder truck for Ashland Fire and Rescue.

In an already close race, with tough campaigning on both sides, both candidates awaited their political fate Friday.

Navickas believes the results of Precinct 2 — the neighborhood where he lives — will go his way.

"I'm confident that the lead at this point is broad enough that statistically it would be very difficult to see a change in the election," he said.

The flip-flopping results have pushed Navickas to consult legal experts on the possibility of a recount.

After Wednesday morning's results had Navickas leading, Lemhouse said he would wait until the ballot count was over before making any decisions.

If the race ends up within one fifth of one percent difference between the two candidates, it would trigger an automatic re-count. Otherwise, candidates could opt to pay $15 per precinct for a re-count. Ashland has five precincts within city limits and a sixth rural precinct.

Lemhouse said the anxiety of waiting for results didn't bother him.

"It's an important race, but there are more important things in life," he said.

Lemhouse said he trusts Beckett to do her job, and he trusts the people who work at the elections office to be honest.

"The last thing anybody wants is something that will hurt the town," he said.

Staff writer Alan Panebaker can be reached at 482-3456 x 227 or apanebaker@dailytidings.com.