District 12 Senate race recount begins in Jamestown

About 3,800 absentee and early voting ballots in the District 12 Senate race were inspected Friday by Noel Johnson, election administrator for Stutsman County, Joel Larson, representing Republican Sen. Dave Nething and Jamie Selzer, executive director of the North Dakota Democratic Party representing challenger John Grabinger.

The recount started Friday morning.

A total of 69 ballots are being challenged while the rest have been processed through the county's voting machines. Forty-three absentee ballots, completed in pencil not black or blue ink, were challenged. The equipment is not guaranteed to count pencil-completed ballots. Three absentee ballots were challenged due to the lack of proper election official initials. Twenty-three early voting ballots were challenged because of less than perfect marking of the oval.

Challenged ballots will be reviewed and, if valid, hand counted by the recount board made up of Fritz Fremgen, Stutsman County state’s attorney, Mark Klose, Stutsman County Commission chairman, and Karen Samek, Stutsman County, register of deeds, at the end of the process.

Approximately 6,000 votes were cast in the race that pitted Democratic challenger Grabinger against Nething, a Republican who has served in the Senate since 1966.

Election night results gave Nething a 10-vote lead which expanded to 12 votes after the Canvassing Board added late arriving absentee ballots. North Dakota law mandates a recount any time the final margin is less than one half of 1 percent of the top vote getter's tally, or about 15 votes in this case.

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at (701) 952-8452 or by e-mail at knorman@jamestownsun.com

Tags: recount, district, 12, nething, grabinger, senate, race, stutsman, county