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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said she has been trying since August to get guidelines from the state on how to handle ballot recounts under the state's new electronic voting system.
Joe Demma, chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, said the state probably will develop guidelines before the general election in November, and, in the meantime, Swensen "should implement a recount as she sees fit."
The votes are recorded electronically and also printed on paper backups.
Swensen said, "We need procedures, and they need to be uniform for all the counties, including if and when the paper trail becomes something we refer to for the purposes of a recount."
Three counties are facing possible recounts from last week's primary.
In the Salt Lake County, Jim Bird edged incumbent Republican Rep. Peggy Wallace by 24 votes. At a canvass on Tuesday, officials will count absentee and provisional ballots and certify the election results. Unless the margin expands, Wallace has the right to ask for a recount. Piute and Wayne counties had close county commissioner races that could require recounts.
Last month, Herbert's deputy Mike Cragun told Swensen that a recount would consist of reconciling the polling place records, "re-accumulating the memory cards" and recounting the absentee ballots.
"The permanent paper record comes into play only in an extreme situation," he said.
Swensen said Wednesday, "I don't know exactly what 'extreme' means."
She said state law says only that the paper backup will be "available" for a recount. "It's unclear when and how and if the paper record will come into a recount," she said.
Demma said Wednesday that regarding recounts, "We are working through all that. We didn't have a magic wand to wave at all the issues."
Swensen said that without a statewide policy, she likely would simply reconcile the electronic memory cards.
Piute County Clerk Valeen Brown said she is not sure how she would go about a recount, and, "I'll call the (lieutenant governor's) office and ask them for guidance."
Thad Hall, a University of Utah assistant political science professor who was the principal investigator of the federal Election Assistance Commission Vote Count and Recount Project, said the state could find itself in a legal tangle with the federal government.
"The Help America Vote Act requires that all states have uniform standards of what constitutes a vote," Hall said. "The state should be providing uniform standards -- that is their job, and that is what HAVA is about. If counties get to choose how it is done, the state is very likely going to get sued."
As for Cragun's suggestion that the paper record can be ignored except in extreme situations, "The (Utah) law suggests the paper ballot is the official ballot," Hall said. "This issue may have to be litigated to determine the answer."
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
