Auditor Ballots Won’t Be Recounted

Ventura County election officials have no intention of granting a recount to a candidate who lost his run-off bid by one vote--unless he pays for it himself.

Ventura accountant Scott Weiss, who placed third in the race for county auditor-controller, asked the county voter registrar’s office to recount a handful of votes that were discarded by the computer.

But that would require looking through the entire computer tape, a task that could take five days and 32 people, said Bruce Bradley, assistant registrar of voters.

“It costs $10,000,” Bradley said Monday.

“Why should Mr. Weiss get $10,000 of taxpayers’ money, of your money and my money? If he wants a recount, he should pay for it himself.”

Bradley plans to ask the County Board of Supervisors to certify election results at a meeting today.

His final tally for the June 7 vote showed appointed Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon with 35,561 votes, Richard Morrisset with 17,195 and Weiss with 17,194.

Weiss had led Morrisset by 75 votes on election night, but lost ground as absentee ballots were counted.

Weiss said 274 ballots were not counted because each of the computerized ballot cards had more than one vote punched in in the auditor’s race. He argued that some of the ballots could actually be valid.

“I’m not asking for a free recount,” Weiss said. “I’m asking them to look at the 274 overvotes.”

If not, he said, “they run the risk of invalidating the votes of 17,000 people.”

Bradley said the computer does not separate the faulty ballots, complicating any recount effort.