Recount process not unknown to Reid, Angle

CARSON CITY -- One place Harry Reid doesn't want to be next month is standing in a county election department in the middle of the night watching people recount ballots.

He has been there. In 1974, a recount found he lost the U.S. Senate race to Republican Paul Laxalt by 624 votes. But 24 years later -- at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 11, 1998, -- workers in Reno finished recounting ballots in his Senate race against John Ensign. Reid won that one by 428 votes.

That a recount could occur this November in his race against Republican Sharron Angle seems possible, almost probable.

The average margin between Reid and Angle, according to polls taken this month for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other organizations, is 0.4 percentage points in favor of Angle. Their race is a tossup.

Democratic lawyers who worked for U.S. Sen. Al Franken on the recount in Minnesota in 2008 already are "on the ground in Nevada preparing for the recount," according to Jay Weiner, a Minnesota writer and author of "This Is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won The Minnesota Senate Recount."

"The most experienced recount lawyers will be working for Reid," Weiner said.

He expects the national Republican Party also will send in a squad of lawyers to help Angle if the election results are close.

Reid's camp, however, says now that the senator is concentrating only on winning the election.

"While Republicans will try every trick in the book, we're focused on getting every vote possible for Senator Reid so we can win by a margin that would negate any need for a recount," said campaign spokesman Jon Summers.

Angle's spokesman did not respond to repeated calls for comment on the possibility of a recount.

Like Reid, Angle also knows what it is like to lose a close race. She went to court in June 2006 after election results showed she lost the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat by 421 votes to Dean Heller.

Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox ruled against Angle. But he also said he did not have jurisdiction over the matter. The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate decide legal challenges to elections involving their members, he said.

A Nevada Supreme Court in 1964 found that the Congress has "supreme and exclusive" power over challenges in congressional races.

But in Nevada, recounts are overseen by the secretary of state and conducted in the 17 election departments and county clerks' offices across the state.

Will this November be 1998 all over again?

Maybe, says state historian Guy Rocha. But he expects a Reid or Angle recount won't change anything.

"Now we use electronic voting machines which arguably reduce the probability of errors," Rocha said. "Unless there is a difference of less than 100 votes, it is highly unlikely a recount will change the result."

In fact, Rocha said no recount of a statewide race in Nevada history ever has changed the result of the election.

Matt Griffin, the deputy secretary of state for elections, said 7 percent to 10 percent of votes in this election will be cast on paper, absentee ballots. The rest will be on electronic voting machines.

He expects that 50,000 to 70,000 paper ballots will be cast in a race where as many as 800,000 people will vote.

Like Rocha, Griffin anticipates that a recount would find no change in the voting figures taken off voting machines.

"The machines are incredibly accurate," Griffin said. "Any votes to be gained or lost in an election most likely will come from paper ballots.

A state regulation allows candidates to choose only precincts with paper ballot voting for a recount. However, they still can request a recount on voting machine precincts. State law stipulates recounts occur in 5 percent of the precincts in each county.

Griffin emphasized that repeated tests have been made to ensure the accuracy of the software used in the voting machines. Others will be conducted after the election.

Since the 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore was settled when the U.S. Supreme Court ended the Florida recount, Griffin said the Nevada Legislature has passed a law to avoid some of the Florida problems.

The Nevada law prevents any guessing by recount workers about how the voter intended to mark his or her paper ballot.

Unlike Florida, Nevada is not a "voter intent state," Griffin said. The Nevada state law stipulates recount officials don't count a ballot unless the voter has clearly marked in the appropriate space the name of the candidate for whom he or she or she voted.

"If it is not marked in the designated area clearly, then it is not counted," Griffin said.

In contrast, Minnesota was a voter intent state when a recount was held there two years ago in the Senate race.

Recount workers looked at each paper ballot in front of a three-judge panel and decided which candidate the voter intended to support.

Eight months after the election, Democrat Al Franken was declared the winner of the Senate race by 312 votes over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. Initial election results showed Coleman with a 250-vote lead.

Weiner said Minnesota uses different voting machines than Nevada. Instead of the touch-screen machines, Minnesota voters mark ovals next to the names of the candidates they support. These ballots are fed into counting machines.

More than 2.9 million people cast ballots in the Coleman-Franken race and each ballot was recounted by hand. Weiner said he agreed with the recount that Franken was the winner.

With the Reid-Angle race an apparent tossup, Griffin, the deputy secretary of state, admitted he has thought about a recount.

"I wouldn't say I am alarmed about a recount," said Griffin. "But their race is close and yes there is a potential of a recount."

Under state law, the candidate requesting the recount pays all costs. The money is returned if the recount finds he or she won the election.

Griffin does not know how much a recount in the Senate race would cost. Registrars and county clerks in each county would estimate their costs of performing the recount after a candidate files for a recount.

Under state laws and regulations, a losing candidate could not request a recount before Nov. 23 when the state Supreme Court canvasses the election results. If a recount is sought by Reid or Angle, then the winner of the Senate seat might not be known until Dec. 10.

Angle was told four years ago that she would have to pay $110,000 for a recount of votes in her race against Heller, who then was the secretary of state. She went to court and lost.

Ensign paid $59,108 for the recount in 1998. Instead of losing by 401 votes, the recount put his loss at 428 votes.

The Reid-Ensign race was settled 37 days after the election. Ensign decided against contesting the election results to the U.S. Senate. Two years later, he won a Senate seat.

Rocha said there have been several memorable close Nevada races. In 1898, Silver Party member Reinhold Sadler defeated Republican William McMillan in the governor's race by 22 votes.

McMillan demanded the election results not be made official until the votes by Nevada sailors serving on a ship during the Spanish-American War could be counted.

The state Supreme Court agreed. When the ship docked in San Francisco, these votes were counted. Sadler won by 63 votes.

Then in 1964, Republican Paul Laxalt lost by 48 votes to incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon. The recount found Laxalt lost by 84 votes.

Laxalt, however, was on the winning end 10 years later when that recount showed he defeated Reid by 624 votes.

When Reid prevailed in his 1998 recount against Ensign, one of the first calls he received was from Laxalt who wanted to reminisce about their recount and congratulate him about being on the winning side after 24 years.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.