Recount completed in Tulsa County clerk election
BY KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Friday, September 07, 2012
9/07/12 at 11:37 PM
Tulsa County clerk candidate Pat Key gained one vote and her opponent, Dean Martin, lost one vote in a manual recount completed Friday afternoon by the Tulsa County Election Board.
The new totals give Key 9,009 votes to Dean Martin’s 8,825 — a difference of 184 votes.
Key and Martin faced each other in the Republican Party primary runoff Aug. 28, with unofficial results giving Key 9,008 to Martin’s 8,826. The winner of the election becomes the next county clerk because no Democrat filed for the office.
Martin — followed by Key — requested a recount last week.
Tulsa County District Judge William Kellough on Thursday allowed the recount to proceed after finding the chain of custody of the ballots had been maintained.
The Election Board began recounting the 17,384 ballots at 1 p.m. Thursday on the second floor of the Faulkner Building, 303 W. First St. The recount was finished at 3 p.m. Friday.
Completion of the recount does not mean completion of the election.
Martin also has filed a petition alleging nearly 1,900 irregularities in the affidavits accompanying the 1,525 absentee ballots cast.
Kellough has scheduled a hearing on the challenge for 10 a.m. Sept. 14. At that time, he will determine whether the challenge should be allowed and the affidavits reviewed for irregularities.
Should the challenge be allowed, the court would report its final count of legal absentee ballots to the Election Board, which would certify the winner.
Associated Images:
Mike Fritz (right), a caller in a recount between county clerk candidates, works with Jackie Pizarro, a stacker, inside the Faulkner Building at the Sheriff's Office, on Thursday. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
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