BUTTE, Mont. (AP) 鈥� A southwestern Montana county recounted its primary ballots Tuesday, but the results did not change the candidates who advance to the general election in nonpartisan races for a state judgeship and the city-county chief executive.
A judge ordered a recount last week after election officials acknowledged that about 1,000 ballots appeared to have been counted twice. The recount showed an overcount of 1,143 ballots out of 10,934 cast 鈥� just over 10%.
A member of the public had questioned the number of votes tallied in the June 4 primary, .
Linda Sajor-Joyce, the county's election chief, said she believed somebody accidentally took ballots that had come out of a tabulator and put them in the wrong spot, causing them to be counted again. Something similar had happened in the past, Sajor-Joyce last week.
Sajor-Joyce said she also noticed the voting numbers might be off during a post-election audit, but thought the numbers were still acceptable.
鈥淚 knew I wanted to take a harder look at it,鈥� she said, but it was difficult to make the time because county election offices also had to verify signatures for three constitutional initiatives 鈥� a task that took longer because the issue of counting the signatures of inactive voters .
Republican Jason Ellsworth, president of the Montana Senate, said he was appointing a select committee to investigate the incident and determine if any changes in law need to be made to ensure something similar doesn't happen again.
The Associated Press
