(Host) Governor Jim Douglas says he won’t be surprised if the "unofficial" vote total in the Democratic gubernatorial race changes after the Secretary of State’s office has conducted its own tally of the votes.
Douglas, who served as Secretary of State for 6 terms, says inconsistencies in tabulating votes on Election Night are more common than many people think.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) Could there be a difference between the "unofficial" vote tally taken on Tuesday night when town clerks reported their totals to various news media, and the "certified" count that’s based on the paperwork that these clerks submit to the Secretary of State’s office?
Governor Jim Douglas says the answer is definitely yes. Based on the "unofficial" results, Peter Shumlin leads Doug Racine by just under 200 votes.
Douglas served as Secretary of State for 12 years between 1981 and 1993 and he says vote discrepancies are quite common:
(Douglas) "It’s not a precise process – it’s a matter of communicating numbers through multiple individuals and recording those numbers and the final official tally won’t be known until next Tuesday…the results between an Election day unofficial tally and the recount where they’ve been held can be quite significant."
(Kinzel) As an example, Douglas cited this year’s Republican race for Secretary of State in the town of West Rutland. He says on Tuesday night, it was reported that Chris Roy had received 401 votes but that number didn’t sit right with challenger Jason Gibbs:
(Douglas) "He checked with the town clerk and instead of being 401 for Chris it was 41 for Chris – Jason won it by 2 to 1. Well, that’s a huge swing of over 300 votes in one town. So with a margin in the gubernatorial race that’s so narrow there well could be discrepancies. I think it’s important and understandable that the candidates would want to see the final tally before deciding on their next steps."
(Kinzel) Turnout on Primary Day was a lot higher than initial projections. Despite the turnout, Douglas says it would be better to move the date back to the second Tuesday in September.
Lawmakers this year moved it to comply with new federal election rules for overseas ballots:
(Douglas) "I think it’s interesting that our 3 neighboring states New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York have elected to maintain their Primary on September 14th. And to be honest I think if we had the same day the cumulative effect of all the advertising focused on that date would have resulted in an even greater turnout."
(Kinzel) The Secretary of State’s office is in the process of conducting its vote count and these preliminary results could be released by late Friday afternoon.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.