Recount in Tulsa mayoral election to continue for Day 4

Third-place finisher Brent VanNorman challenged the unofficial results in hopes of making the ballot for Nov. 5’s final round of voting, despite a 436-vote difference between him and second-place finisher Karen Keith and a margin of more than 700 between him and top vote-getter Monroe Nichols.

Inside a former manufacturing plant in east Tulsa, off 11th Street and Skelly Drive, 11 tables of paid poll workers sat sorting and tallying Tulsa County ballots by hand from 9 a.m. until about 6:30 p.m. on Monday, recounting for a third or fourth time when necessary.

Roughly 90% — or 51,375, of the 55,000 or so votes — have been recounted so far.

Election officials said Monday evening that about 30 had been ruled “overvotes” — ballots with marks next to more than one candidate’s name. The resulting losses were spread more or less evenly among the top three candidates.

A second, much smaller recount was scheduled for Monday afternoon at the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska. It involved 1,200 mayoral votes tabulated in four Osage County precincts within the Tulsa city limits.

Certified results received from Kelly Chouteau, secretary of the Osage County Election Board, were identical from election night — VanNorman received only 66 votes, well behind Keith’s 291 and Nichols’ 794.

The vast majority of volunteer observers of the Tulsa County recount have been from the VanNorman and Nichols campaigns.

But Keith herself stopped by about 1:15 p.m. Monday and chatted with Election Board commissioners and stayed for about 30 minutes.

“It’s really not a concern for me because I have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our election,” she said when asked why her campaign had only a few people watching the recount.

As the recount heads into its fourth day, Keith said she questions the fact that taxpayers, by and large, will foot the bill for such a costly, time-consuming endeavor.

“Unless there is some dramatic change (in the outcome), I think the one challenging it ought to pay for it, and I think the state Legislature needs to look at how to make the county whole for this,” Keith said.

Tulsa County GOP Chairwoman Ronda Vuillemont-Smith stopped by around 4 p.m. Monday to check on the progress of the recount.

“It’s not going to change anything — and that’s OK. It helps confirm the integrity of our elections, which we already knew from our past audits,” she said. “We have very good elections here. Anyone who has questions should volunteer to work the polls and see for themselves.”

Under new, stricter guidelines, election boards have been instructed by the state to reject ballots with any trace of markings for more than one candidate. Almost all such ballots are flagged on the spot on election day by Oklahoma’s voting machines, which then ask whether the voter wishes to submit a substitute ballot.

Most of those being flagged during the recount by paid poll workers or “watchers” — volunteers representing specific candidates — and disallowed by the three-member Tulsa County Election Board are less obvious. Even a smudge or the dot of a pen could move a ballot to the “overvote” category.

While the new guidelines eliminate just about all subjective judgment calls, some complain that they also deprive citizens of otherwise valid votes.

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