Manual recount bill bracketed
A bill bracketed on general file Feb. 17 would have allowed candidates for public office who fail to garner enough votes for nomination or election to request manual recounts.
Current law triggers automatic machine recounts paid by political subdivisions if the margin of victory is 1 percent or less for an election in which more than 500 votes were cast, or 2 percent or less for elections in which 500 or fewer votes were cast. Candidates can request a recount at their expense if the margin of victory is greater.
LB161, introduced by Wilber Sen. Russ Karpisek, would have permitted a candidate to request that the recount be done manually, at his or her own expense.
A Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee amendment would have restricted a manual recount to elections in which the margin of victory would trigger an automatic recount.
Karpisek said the bill would increase voter confidence in machine counts by adding an option for manual recounts. Currently, only a court order provides for access to paper ballots, he said.
“Anytime we can do something to help people feel that their vote counts, it is a good move,” he said.
Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery spoke in support of the bill, citing an election supervisor in Palm Beach, Calif., who acknowledged that 14 percent of ballots were not counted for a 2008 city commissioner election.
“If the potential for error exists, why not provide a means for verifying the votes counted by visual inspection?” Avery asked.
Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha spoke in opposition to LB161. He said election officials run test ballots before and after an election to verify that the machines are tabulating correctly. Furthermore, machines are superior to hand recounts in accuracy, he said.
“This bill would do nothing to create greater accuracy, transparency or confidence in the process,” Lautenbaugh said. “What this would do instead is hamper the process, delay finality and introduce questions that have no merit.”
Lautenbaugh offered a motion to bracket the bill until June 8, and lawmakers adopted the motion 26-11.
