Hearings to focus on recount
Results in 2004 Republican primary disputed by some

Corinne Purtill
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 13, 2005 12:00 AM

A Republican state senator will hold hearings next year on a disputed 2004 legislative recount, reopening a case that has divided Republicans between those still questioning the election's handling and those who would like to see the matter ped.

The action will revive a lingering mystery over a recount that unearthed more than 400 new votes, raising questions about the accuracy of vote counts in state elections.

Sen. Jack Harper of Surprise said he plans to hold legislative hearings on the 2004 District 20 primary race recount before the Government Accountability and Reform Committee that he chairs, shortly after the Senate reconvenes in January.

He declined to comment further on the hearings.

Harper's decision to revisit the contested election that handed the District 20 House seat to newcomer John McComish has drawn criticism and interest from various corners of the state's ruling party.

House Speaker Jim Weiers has indicated that he considers the matter closed, after an investigation by the County Attorney's Office earlier this year that yielded no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the handling of the second ballot tally.

The speaker met with Harper recently to probe his reasons for conducting the hearings, said Barrett Marson, communications director for Weiers.

However, other Republican senators and the leadership of the county Republican Party say they continue to have questions about a recount that unearthed more than 400 new votes and reversed the initial outcome.

"It just bugs me to think that we have this mystery," District 20 Sen. John Huppenthal said. "It's a significant issue because you want to have confidence . . . that if you have multiple counts, that they would come out accurately."

At the end of the Sept. 7, 2004, primary, doctoral student Anton Orlich led businessman John McComish by four votes in District 20, which encompasses Ahwatukee Foothills, west Chandler and south Tempe.

The close finish triggered an automatic recount.

Observed by lawyers and representatives from both sides, as well as independent onlookers, the recount tallied more than 400 additional votes for the five Republican contenders than were counted in the original primary. McComish pulled ahead with 5,633 votes to Orlich's 5,620.

A judge certified the election in favor of McComish after a subpoenaed employee of Election Systems & Software, the voting machines' vendor, failed to appear in court to testify about the machines' accuracy.

Orlich declined to comment for this story.

At the time, Elections Department officials said the surge in total votes came from mail-in ballots marked in irregular types of ink - markers or glitter pens, for example - that the machines didn't count the first time around.

Dissatisfied with that explanation, the Maricopa County Republican Party asked the County Attorney's Office this year to look into handling of the ballots.

The office's investigation found no evidence of criminal misconduct in the handling of the recount, said Barnett Lotstein, a special assistant county attorney who worked on the case.

However, the office did find the difference in the vote totals "extremely disturbing," Lotstein said, and discussed concerns over possible machine malfunctions with County Recorder Helen Purcell and Elections Director Karen Osborne.

The Elections Department is not renewing its contract with Election Systems & Software when it expires this month and is seeking a new vendor for software that can recognize different types of ink, said Yvonne Reed, executive assistant to the county recorder.

She said the District 20 recount was not the sole cause for the change.

For many in the party, the ink explanation hasn't washed.

Though the county party ped its pursuit of the matter after the County Attorney's Office issued its findings, Chairman Larry Pickard said he would be watching Harper's hearings with interest.

"There are still questions . . . that maybe don't rise to the level of any type of criminal activity, but still some kind of loose ends that we're looking for," Pickard said. "Was the security of the ballots what (it) should have been?"

Huppenthal said he has met with Purcell, reviewed election data and inspected the machines used in the recount. His findings have left him uncomfortable, he said.

"When you look at the data, the official explanation for what happened isn't consistent with the data," he said.

Huppenthal, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had no desire to pursue any investigation of the results without permission from McComish, whose performance as a freshman representative he called "phenomenal."

McComish said he is not interested in pursuing that option.