COMMISSION RECONCILES PRIMARY VOTE PRECINCT ISSUE DURING WEDNESDAY CANVAS - Sheriff Candidate Walker May Ask For County-Wide Recount

(05/19/2016)

The canvass of Calhoun's Primary Election results was completed Wednesday by the Calhoun Commission, with a team from the Calhoun Clerk's office, representatives of both political parties and a team from the WV Secretary of States office.

It was the third day of the canvas.

The issue was reconciling by hand count of the paper trail on voting machines vs. the voting returns recorded by the computerized voting machine.

A problem surfaced Monday during the Calhoun Commissions canvass of ballots from the Primary Election with a discrepancy of 1% difference between the paper ballot tally and the voter machine computerized tally.

That caused a continued recount of a precinct.

"Reconciling the hand count (a paper trail on computer voting machines) with the computer read-out is often a problem related to human error," said commissioner Helmick.

Commissioner Chip Westfall said the problem was created by the "hand-count" of over 200 delegates to the Republican National Convention, with very little problem appearing in county races.

If the issue had not been resolved, the entire county election would have been subject to a recount.

The election is expected to be certified by the commission next week when the WV Secretary of State approves.

Sheriff's candidate Andy Walker has announced he has hired an attorney and will file for a county-wide recount over his loss to Jeff Starcher.

During Monday's canvass of what used to be called challenged ballots, now called provisional ballots, Starcher's win was increased to 30 plus votes.

Walker is also claiming that a voter in the Orma or Minnora precinct was given a Republican ballot when the voter was a registered Democrat, and appears to essentially be asking that the entire precinct vote be thrown out.

Commissioners said Wednesday that election disputes will be resolved strictly under WV Code and through the Secretary of State's office or through court action.

The precinct tallies will be released when the election is certified.