When is a Recount NOT a Recount?
This is a follow-up to my Dec 6 article regarding the WAGOP lawsuit disputing the current 2024 Legislative District 18 State Senator race. The case is Matthew Frohlich and Washington State Republican Party Plaintiffs, V Clark County and Greg Kimsey, in his official Capacity as the Clark County Auditor, Defendants.
In the race, Republican candidate Brad Benton is down by 172 votes with 84,123 total votes cast. Benton has 41,881 (49.79%) votes and his Democrat challenger Adrian Cortes has 42,053 (49.99%) votes.
Washington's 18th legislative district is located within Clark County, bordering the 20th district in the North, and the 49th and 17th districts in the Southwest and East and includes parts of Vancouver, Battleground, Salmon Creek, Felida, a small part of Ridgefield, and other rural parts of Clark County.
The WAGOP and their attorney Ard Law Group are disputing the results and asking for the race to not be certified. They say over 1,000 votes counted in the race were from voters who did not reside in the district, violating RCW 29A.08.060. The case is scheduled for Jan 3, 2025, in Clark County Superior Court.
Specifically, it appears that the National Change of Address (NCOA) database maintained by the US Postal Service reflects that 1,046 ballots mailed, returned, and tallied in the race were voted and returned by people who had previously filed change of address notices.
The vote margin between the candidates of 172 votes (.20%) required a mandatory recount (see RCW 29A.64.021). That recount was completed Dec 9.
If the vote margin is less than 150 votes, the recount must be a hand recount of the paper ballots (see RCW 29A.64.021).
A machine recount requires elections officials to review write-in votes and undervotes in the contest. An undervote is a contest where a voter chose not to vote. In the LD 18 State Senate race, there were approximately 4,753 undervotes.
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