The Annapolis Board of Canvassers said Wednesday it will conduct a hand recount of all ballots cast in the Sept. 16 primary for city offices, just one day after posting what were supposed to be final results. (Stock.adobe.com photo by Grandbrothers)
One day after posting the official results from the Sept. 16 primary election for city offices, the Annapolis Board of Canvassers had second thoughts Wednesday, voting in an emergency meeting to conduct a hand recount of all ballots cast in the race.
In a news release announcing the decision, the board said it called for the recount in the wake of an election night transcription error — which was caught and corrected during the official canvass — that led to vote totals briefly being assigned to the wrong candidates in the Ward 6 race.
It also comes with the final results posted Tuesday showing the candidates in the Ward 4 race separated by just four votes, with 144 votes for Janice Elaine Allsup-Johnson to 140 votes for Coren Makell. Despite the narrow margin, however, Makell congratulated Allsup-Johnson and all the other Democratic primary winners Tuesday and pledged to “supporting you all in the general election.”
Eileen Leahy, the chair of the Annapolis Board of Canvassers, said the recount is aimed at giving additional assurances to voters that the final results are correct.
“The integrity of City elections is our highest priority,” Leahy said in a statement. “While the certification process worked as intended and the correct outcome was reported, we believe a full hand count audit will provide additional assurance to voters and demonstrate our commitment to transparency and accuracy.
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“We appreciate our partnership with the Anne Arundel County Board of Elections and their willingness to demonstrate these values to both candidates and voters,” her statement said.
The city contracts with the board of elections to administer elections, and it will be conducting the audit at its Glen Burnie office beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday. That meeting will be open to the public.
City election officials said that hand count will review all in-person ballots cast in precincts on Election Day, review all mail-in and drop box ballots and verify that the certified results match the original voter-marked paper ballots.
The Board of Canvassers also said Wednesday that the county Board of Elections has put new safeguards in place for the Nov. 4 general election, “including on-site verification of results at the County facility on election night, immediate tape audits by election judges, and more robust checks before releasing unofficial results.”
Except for the possibility of a shift in the razor-thin margin of the Ward 4 race, the recount is unlikely to affect the outcome of any of the other contested city races in the Democratic primary. The closest margin in the other races was 51% of the vote for the winner of the Ward 1 race to 31% for the runner-up.
In the marquee race of the election, for the Democratic nomination for mayor, businessman Jared Littmann won 2,594 votes to 1,271 for longtime City Council Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles, according to Tuesday’s results. Littmann now faces Republican Bob O’Shea in the Nov. 4 general election to succeed current Mayor Gavin Buckley (D), who is term-limited after serving two terms. O’Shea was unopposed in the Republican primary.