Foster Co. election results will stand

Carrington (CSi) The results of the June 10, 2014 election in Foster County will stand.

On Monday the county canvassing board re-canvassed the results following last week’s recount that falsely showed 300 ballots were missing.

County Auditor Teresa Risovi says the 300 extra ballots that were electronically reported to the secretary of state’s office were due to 100 test ballots that had been run through the three ES&S M100 voting machines prior to the election, as required by law. Risovi said the machine had a display that showed the test ballots had been zeroed out, but they remained on the machines’ memory cards.

In communications between Foster County State’s Attorney Paul Murphy and Secretary of State Al Jaeger, Jaeger confirms Risovi’s theory about the test ballots.

The recount was demanded by Foster County Commission candidate Donnie Theis following an earlier re-canvassing of the June 10 election on July 28.

Six candidates ran for four spots on the November ballot with the top four vote-getters going on to race at large for the two commission seats up for grabs.

Theis had finished in fifth place behind the current Commission Chairman Paul Straley by 15 votes. The canvassing board threw out two ballots it had previously accepted, which shortened Straley’s lead to 13 votes and made the difference in the race exactly 2 percent, entitling Theis to demand a recount at his own expense.

Previously….

Carrington (CSi) The Foster County Canvassing Board has reconvened to reconsider a previous decision to count the absentee ballots in the June 10, 2014 Primary Election.

The board voted on whether or not the ballots would be counted.

With Foster County Auditor Teresa Risovi not voting, the board passed the decision to not count the two unsigned absentee ballots.

Not counting the two ballots will allow Donnie Theis, who was fifth in voting, to ask for a recount of the ballots.

The Recount Board for Foster County will be meeting on Monday, August 4th.