Buster officially wins District 1 county race

SUPERVISORIAL ELECTION: The incumbent avoids a runoff, but a recount is being considered.

01:17 AM PST on Tuesday, March 30, 2004

By MICHAEL CORONADO / The Press-Enterprise

The Riverside County registrar's office on Monday certified the District 1 supervisorial election, paving the way for an expected recount by losing candidate Linda Soubirous.

The certified results still show incumbent Bob Buster garnering the needed 50 percent plus one vote to avoid a November runoff against Soubirous.

Buster received 24,647 votes, or 50.1 percent. Soubirous received 16,971 votes, or 34.5 percent, and Kevin Pape received 7,578 votes, or 15.4 percent.

Registrar Mischelle Townsend said Soubirous now has five days in which to file a formal request for a recount.

Last week, Soubirous sent a letter to Townsend stating her intent to seek a recount given the close race and a study she cited that scrutinized the electronic voting machines.

Her recount demand would come in the midst of controversy surrounding electronic voting systems across Southern California.

Leaders of the state Senate's election panel said this month that California should abandon touch-screen voting machines for the November general election to avoid a repeat of problems that occurred during the March primary.

Voting officials were plagued with machine snafus in San Diego, Orange and Alameda counties. And in San Bernardino County, election results weren't available for hours after the election because officials there did not properly prepare a computer to process the results.

Still, the Riverside County electronic voting machines have proven error-safe. They've had no glitches and no serious problems that have hampered any election so far.

For a recount, a minimum of two boards, consisting of four members each, would count paper and electronic ballots manually. Given the vast size of District 1, which includes most of Riverside, the city of Lake Elsinore and the unincorporated communities of Mead Valley, Lake Mathews, Woodcrest and Wildomar, up to six boards could be employed to complete a recount.

Townsend said that based on previous recount efforts, she doesn't anticipate the outcome changing.

"You never know until you complete it, but that's been our experience," Townsend said.