Samuelson campaign manager alleges votes were also undercounted

12:03 AM EST on Saturday, November 6, 2004

By TONY BURBECK / WCNC 6NEWS

After Mecklenburg County election officials announced they believed they had overcounted the number of ballots in the hotly contested congressional race, campaign staff believes some votes were undercounted in the recount.

At least one voting machine from Huntersville was undercounted, said Brian Francis, the campaign manager for Republican County Commissioner Ruth Samuelson. Board of Elections data shows one machine in Huntersville had 67 votes for Congresswoman Sue Myrick, while machines next to it had more than 600 votes each for Myrick, Francis said.

Francis believes the problem could be the result of a transcription mistake, votes missed by the machine or a large number of people who used the same machine and didn't vote for Myrick, the overwhelming winner.

He wants a machine-by-machine Election Day vote count and computer files detailing how the results were downloaded.

Democratic Party officials maintain that once all the votes are counted, three Democrats who initially had the most votes will sweep the at-large county commission seats.

The Board of Elections would not comment on the overcount. Elections Director Michael Dickerson said the election returns were correct as of the latest recount.

"I haven't ruled out anything," he said. "But the investigation is now on the backburner. My more pressing concern is my provisional ballots."

More than 6,000 provisional ballots are expected to determine whether Samuelson or Wilhelmenia Rembert will be the at-large County Commissioner. The ballots were examined Friday and will be counted on Monday.

"I believe they are doing everything to make the process work properly," Rembert said.

"I'm not confident the numbers we have right now will be the final numbers," Samuelson said.

An election certification hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday.