Rep. Tom McKay gains two votes in recount, still wins

By
Suzanne Downing
-
12

Rep. Tom McKay, District 15, Anchorage, survived a recount of the Nov. 8. He went from having a 7-vote advantage over Democrat Denny Wells to having a 9-vote lead.

The recount was conducted on Thursday at the Division of Elections at the request of Wells.

The recount took place in Juneau. Each candidate had the ability to have two observers at the event. When Wells didn’t get the result he wanted, he peppered Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai with multiple questions that were, to a large extent, unimportant to the count.

In a separate recount conducted on Wednesday, Sen. Cathy Giessel retained her lead in District E, South Anchorage, after Democrat Roselynn Cacy, who came in third, requested a recount. There was a 14-vote difference between her and Sen. Roger Holland, a Republican.

The Senate recount awarded both Cacy and Holland two votes apiece, but Giessel remained the overall winner of the race, beating incumbent Holland.

12 COMMENTS

    • Actually Mark, they counted the ballots. All of them. There were a few ballots not counted for obvious mistakes made by the voter, e.g., the voter mailed the ballot in after the deadline for posting, which caused the ballot to not be counted. That didn’t make the particular ballot garbage, it just meant it didn’t get counted.

    • Garbage in, garbage out is absolutely the case when it comes to recounts. Recounts are meaningless.
      .
      It is just as likely that a vote will be miscounted in the recount as it was in the initial count. If 1% of the votes were accidentally put in the wrong candidate’s pile on the initial count, what makes you think the same percentage will not be accidentally placed in the wrong candidate’s pile on the recount? HINT: It is just as likely to happen on the recount, and the recount after that, etc…
      That is why recounts do not change outcomes very often.
      .
      On the other hand, an audit of the ballots can alter the outcome. An audit will not only count the ballots, it will also question if the ballot was legally cast.
      If I were to hand you a stack of money and say there is one hundred dollars in the stack, a count/recount will discover there are one hundred pieces of paper that say “one dollar” on them. An audit will discover that 15 of the pieces of paper are Monopoly money, 15 of them are photocopies of US Dollar bills, and an additional 15 of the pieces of paper are actually Post-It notes on which the words “One US Dollar” are written.

  2. Suzanne…Any explanation why two the vote change? New ballots? Questioned ballots that were accepted?

    I know it is only two votes but when vote tally changes I expect DOE would provide some kind of an explanation.

    And BTW – I have worked with Denny Wells — unimportant questions are the norm.

    • Upon further inquiry, there seem to have been a couple of ballots where people used a marker and let it stain through to the other side, and the counters and observers all had to look at it from both sides to determine intent. I’ll dig for an explanation. – sd

      • If a ballot is incorrectly filled out, it should be tossed. Is there anything in AK law that permits 3rd parties to attempt to “ determine intent”?

        I’d never heard that before Gore-Bush.

        • The ballots were properly filled out. The voter used an ink pen that bled through a bit on the other side of the ballot. This is referred to as a ballot with a “stray” or “errant” mark. The election officials correctly doing their job according to the law, put the ballot aside and afforded both candidates with an opportunity to inspect the ballot in order to determine whether any of stray marks caused a problem with ascertaining the intent of the voter. Neither campaign decided the stray mark was a problem. The intent of the voter was obvious and ballot counted according to the way the voter filled in the ovals. The stray makrs or bleed through didn’t result in an issue where either candidate was punished or rewarded.
          The election officials and both campaigns did their jobs and did it well.

          There is probably much the Masked Dude hasn’t heard, before or after the Bush-Gore recount for a lot of reasons, not least being he has a limited capacity to pay attention based on the drivel he routinely spews in the comment section of MRA.

          Onward Masked Dude through the fog and into oblivion.

          • Who’s your daddy?
            Yes I am.

            You want me soooo badly. I don’t blame you. For my age I’m damn good looking and you desperately need a strong male figure in your life.

            I’ll give you this one for free, Joey. You can’t bother me with your grade school insults. Your inability to actually make cogent points is not my problem or concern. Does speak volumes about you, however.

  5. I guess mckay is meant to be retained. Extra 2 must been Angels. Justkidding! Hahaha. Anyway i expect to see
    his district deeper red next election, district R leaders have work to do, they narrowly defeated. Seeing the split house and senate i’m thankful to God for
    it. HE giving us more time to repent
    recognizing half the nation or alaska wants to live for God while the
    other half lives for self. Don’t forget to read-aloud to your child starting with bible stories for kids. Republican district leaders aren’t going to be around, We don’t know when jesus returns- it can be 70 years away! We need kids with integrity which only comes from God-jehovah’s Word.

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