Jefferson County election recount 
 
By: BETH GALLASPY, The Enterprise 03/13/2006 
 
 
 BEAUMONT - An election night problem that resulted in an extra 5,000 votes being included in the Jefferson County tally is prompting a recount that could change last week's results.

County Clerk Carolyn Guidry said election officials noticed a discrepancy Friday during a required manual count of three precincts randomly ed by the Secretary of State's office. The number of votes counted exceeded the number of votes cast, Guidry said.

Chairs of the Jefferson County Democratic and Republican parties agreed to the recount after they learned of the problem, Guidry said.

Guidry said she believes the problem occurred when the machine used to count votes cast on touch-screen machines shut down on election workers on election night after 60 percent of votes had been counted.

The votes were cleared using procedures prescribed by the machines' maker, ES&S, and the count started again. However, Guidry believes the machine retained the votes counted before the machine froze and added them to the final tally.

A difference of 5,000 votes could change results in some races including the Democratic nominee for county judge and the two candidates who made the runoff in the Criminal District Court judge race.