State GOP doubtful on recount bid

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:02 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rep. John Ensign was expected to announce Monday whether he will ask for a recount of his 401-vote loss to Sen. Harry Reid, but some Republican leaders are skeptical of their chances of changing the outcome.

A recount would tally all the votes that have already been added up in each county. This doesn't address the complaint of Republicans who suggest that thousands of votes in Washoe County weren't counted in the Nov. 3 election.

"I wish we had another recourse," Ensign's campaign manager Mike Slanker says. Ensign is "very frustrated" that he can't get answers on voting discrepancies in Washoe County.

Alex Flangas, the Reno attorney representing the Nevada Republican Party, said a recount wouldn't delve into the possibility of why some votes were not counted and allegations that absentee votes were mishandled.

"A recount is pro forma," Flangas said after the Nevada Supreme Court canvassed the vote Wednesday that officially declared Reid the winner.

Flangas said a District Court suit to reopen the voting in Washoe County would end up before the Supreme Court -- the same group that performed the canvass finding Reid to be the winner. He didn't like the odds of the court overturning something it had already ruled on.

He doubted that the federal court would intervene and direct Washoe County to conduct an in-depth investigation into GOP allegations.

Ensign, if he were to lose a recount, could file a contest of the election with the U.S. Senate, which could look into the voting discrepancies in Washoe County. The Senate, controlled by Republicans, would have the power to deny Reid his seat.

But Reid, at this point, appears to hold the upper hand. After all, there's never been a recount that has overturned a the results of general election in Nevada history.

If Ensign lost a recount and filed a contest in the Senate, the issue would go to the Senate Rules Committee. But any committee recommendation would have to be voted on by the full Senate.

Reid, who would be seated conditionally in January until the issue was resolved, says Democrats could start a filibuster to block a vote of the Senate. And the Republicans, with 55 members, don't have the required 60 votes to cut off debate.

In addition, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle could tie up business in the Senate indefinitely if the Republicans tried to overturn the Nevada outcome.

While the scenario doesn't look bright for Ensign, Republicans could pressure him to go forward with the recount, which would cost him anywhere from $75,000 to $90,000.

Former Gov. Bob List, a campaign leader for Ensign, has recommended the recount. But he conceded he didn't know whether this would mean a mere reshuffling the same votes, without an investigation of the other allegations.

Republicans claim that more than 3,200 absentee and mail-in ballots were never returned to the voter registrar in Reno or were never counted.

Flangas told the Supreme Court that Republicans contacted 576 of the 3,200 voters at issue. Of that number, 154 claimed to have returned absentee ballots that were never recorded. Eighteen voters told Republican pollsters they received their absentee ballot too late to mail it back by the deadline. And there were 81 instances in which the tab was never separated from the ballot, Flangas said, so those votes were not included in the totals.

Flangas submitted an affidavit from one Incline Village man who said he and his son asked for absentee ballots but never received them. He said the man's mother-in-law cast her absentee ballot but was "shocked" when she found her vote had not been recorded.

But Washoe County Voter Registrar Laura Dancer, who has submitted her resignation since the election, said 82 percent of the absentee ballots were returned, higher than the 81 percent of 1996. She said some of the ballots with their stubs attached may have been counted, but there is no way of knowing.

Secretary of State Dean Heller, the state's chief election officer and a Republican, said he was "comfortable" that the proper vote-counting procedures had been followed in Washoe County. To back up his findings, Heller presented an affidavit to the Supreme Court on Wednesday from an election expert who suggested there may have been some errors in Washoe County, but the "discrepancy should be small."

The affidavit of Robert Naegele, whose company reviews election procedures, said there was "very likely ... an accurate count of the election in Washoe County." He said employees in Washoe County and of Global Elections Systems followed procedures.

If there was a recount, he added, "For equipment properly set up and operated, the error rate should be less than about 1 in 400,000 vote marks counted."

Reid, who begins his third term in January, also remained confident there wouldn't be any change in a recount. The Republicans, Reid said, "have created a lot of talk about nothing." No election, he said has been more closely watched than this one.

In electronic balloting in the last 20 to 30 years, the average change of votes in an election recount is five, Reid said. "If they want a recount, more power to them. It won't change the vote."