2 primaries undecided as votes face recount

An incumbent legislator will take one final shot at retaining her seat.

Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, has requested a recount in the race for the Republican nomination for House District 42, in which she originally lost to challenger Jim Bird. The final results in the race, which were certified Tuesday by the Salt Lake County Board of Canvassers, had Bird winning by only 25 votes, 1004-979.

To qualify for a recount, the race must be decided by less than one vote per precinct. There were 27 precincts in District 42, which is primarily within West Jordan.

Wallace said she wanted a recount to ensure that the results were accurate. She said it was not because of any "animosity" toward either her opponent or County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, who she said has been very helpful through the process.

"Twenty-five votes is very close, and when it's all brand new equipment — or even if it were on the old equipment — we need to make sure it's accurate," she said. "Besides myself, I want everyone else to be assured that the votes were counted correctly."

Bird said that he "hadn't really thought about" a recount, and his only reaction was that he hoped the results did not change. He did not necessarily support the idea of a recount, and if the roles were reversed, "I probably would have just moved on" and allowed the results to stand.

"We've moved on to the next phase of the campaign," he said. "The election was on the 27th (of June), and this is just seeming to take so long."

Swensen said that the recount would only take a couple of hours and that it would probably be done today.

There will also be a recount in Piute County, after the results there were certified Monday. The recount was requested by Bill Sudweeks, who lost in the race for the Republican nomination to a county commission seat to Travas Blood by three votes.

The Piute County recount has the added intrigue of three Democrats having voted in the Republican primary because of poll-worker error, according to Clerk/Auditor Valeen Brown. There were no plans to change or eliminate ballots in the county races, however.

The recounts will be conducted by hand counting the paper provisional and absentee ballots in the races, and then running memory checks on the electronic voting machines. The number of ballots cast on the machines will also be checked against the number of voters who registered at each precinct.

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com