Democrat wants recount of Oakland clerk race [View All]

[SharonRB]

Source: Michigan Messenger

The tight race for election administrator in Oakland County may yield an audit of vote-counting machines that worried the current clerk.

Sheila Smith, the Democratic candidate for county clerk, told Michigan Messenger that she will ask for a recount in her apparently unsuccessful race against incumbent Republican Ruth Johnson.

Johnson questioned the integrity of the county’s vote-tallying machines in an Oct. 24 letter to the federal Election Assistance Commission. The letter was not published by the agency until election eve. In the letter, Johnson warned that 8 percent of the county’s ES&S M100 vote tabulators had failed pre-election logic and accuracy testing. Johnson expressed concern that machine malfunctions — said to be caused by dust build-up — could skew vote totals.

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Voting rights were a key issue in her campaign, said Smith, who took a leave from work as political director at Michigan Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to run for clerk, and a recount in Oakland could be an important way to address citizen concerns about the controversial ES&S M100 machines.

“My platform was voter protection and education, and now I am taking it to another level,“ she said. “When you come that close, you need to test it. “

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Read more: http://michiganmessenger.com/7981/democrat-wants-recount-of-oakland-clerk-race

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I worked on this race and it was very tight. Sheila lost by less than 1% of the vote. They are the same machines being used in Franken's race.