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Ten percent of the votes cast in the ultra-tight and undecided 4th Congressional District race will be audited to make sure machine counts and hand counts match.
The audit was ordered by the California Secretary of State’s Office Friday, according to Gail Smith, Nevada County’s acting Assistant County Clerk-Recorder.
The order came after the Secretary of State’s office reported that Republican Tom McClintock carried a slim 709-vote edge in the race against Democrat Charlie Brown.
“Anytime it’s within half a percent, it’s a 10 percent tally,” Smith said. Under normal circumstances, an audit of 1 percent of the ballots takes place in each county to make sure hand counts and machine tallies match, she added.
With about 40,000 ballots remaining to be counted, Brown was leading in Nevada, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra counties, with McClintock taking Placer, El Dorado, Butte, Lassen and Modoc counties. In Nevada County, 9,694 ballots remain to be counted, Smith said.
Neither side was conceding defeat, and it remains unclear when a final tally will be available. The state-imposed deadline in Dec. 2.
“All the votes have not been counted, and the race is still too close to call,” McClintock spokesman Bill George said Friday.
In a statement, Brown campaign manager Todd Stenhouse said McClintock has a history with recounts, having narrowly lost to Steve Westly for controller in 2002, “so we know he’s going to fight.”
“But rest assured that we will not give up — we will not surrender — we will not rest until we make sure that every single vote is counted.”
Both camps are asking for volunteers to observe the count in county elections offices throughout northeastern California.
“The process of counting the remaining votes could take several weeks, and the Democrats are bringing people in from around the state and nation,” McClintock wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
“This is an open, public process, and if people want to participate, then please let us know,” Stenhouse said. “We have good folks who want to be part of the process, and we know there are people who want to participate.”
Nevada County’s remaining ballots include 8,162 mail ballots that arrived at the polls, the elections office and through the mail on Nov. 4.
Another 208 ballots need to be reconstructed because of damage or because they weren’t counted during a 10-minute power failure in Truckee, Smith said.
Another 1,324 provisional ballots must be counted and checked. Voters are allowed to use provisional ballots when they come to the polls but are not listed on the voting roles. Each provisional ballot is checked to see whether the same person already voted by mail or at another polling site.
The acting assistant elections chief said she still does not know when the final Nevada County tally will be available in the McClintock-Brown race, noting that the office has until Dec. 2 to complete the canvass of the entire election.
“Thankfully, we were able to get a lot done because of early mail-ins by election day,” Smith said. Early voting spreads the election out and eliminates some of the last-minute crunch, despite the Brown-McClintock hang-up, she added.
“We’ll continue early voting in the future and in Truckee,” where people voted early for the first time last Tuesday, Smith added.
Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican representatives were watching elections office officials match signatures with mail-in ballots Friday.
When that work ends, the ballots will all be scanned and added into the final count, Smith said.
To contact Staff Writer David Mirhadi, e-mail dmirhadi@theunion.com or call 477-4239. To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 477-4237.
The audit was ordered by the California Secretary of State’s Office Friday, according to Gail Smith, Nevada County’s acting Assistant County Clerk-Recorder.
The order came after the Secretary of State’s office reported that Republican Tom McClintock carried a slim 709-vote edge in the race against Democrat Charlie Brown.
“Anytime it’s within half a percent, it’s a 10 percent tally,” Smith said. Under normal circumstances, an audit of 1 percent of the ballots takes place in each county to make sure hand counts and machine tallies match, she added.
With about 40,000 ballots remaining to be counted, Brown was leading in Nevada, Plumas, Sacramento and Sierra counties, with McClintock taking Placer, El Dorado, Butte, Lassen and Modoc counties. In Nevada County, 9,694 ballots remain to be counted, Smith said.
Neither side was conceding defeat, and it remains unclear when a final tally will be available. The state-imposed deadline in Dec. 2.
“All the votes have not been counted, and the race is still too close to call,” McClintock spokesman Bill George said Friday.
In a statement, Brown campaign manager Todd Stenhouse said McClintock has a history with recounts, having narrowly lost to Steve Westly for controller in 2002, “so we know he’s going to fight.”
“But rest assured that we will not give up — we will not surrender — we will not rest until we make sure that every single vote is counted.”
Both camps are asking for volunteers to observe the count in county elections offices throughout northeastern California.
“The process of counting the remaining votes could take several weeks, and the Democrats are bringing people in from around the state and nation,” McClintock wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
“This is an open, public process, and if people want to participate, then please let us know,” Stenhouse said. “We have good folks who want to be part of the process, and we know there are people who want to participate.”
Nevada County’s remaining ballots include 8,162 mail ballots that arrived at the polls, the elections office and through the mail on Nov. 4.
Another 208 ballots need to be reconstructed because of damage or because they weren’t counted during a 10-minute power failure in Truckee, Smith said.
Another 1,324 provisional ballots must be counted and checked. Voters are allowed to use provisional ballots when they come to the polls but are not listed on the voting roles. Each provisional ballot is checked to see whether the same person already voted by mail or at another polling site.
The acting assistant elections chief said she still does not know when the final Nevada County tally will be available in the McClintock-Brown race, noting that the office has until Dec. 2 to complete the canvass of the entire election.
“Thankfully, we were able to get a lot done because of early mail-ins by election day,” Smith said. Early voting spreads the election out and eliminates some of the last-minute crunch, despite the Brown-McClintock hang-up, she added.
“We’ll continue early voting in the future and in Truckee,” where people voted early for the first time last Tuesday, Smith added.
Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican representatives were watching elections office officials match signatures with mail-in ballots Friday.
When that work ends, the ballots will all be scanned and added into the final count, Smith said.
To contact Staff Writer David Mirhadi, e-mail dmirhadi@theunion.com or call 477-4239. To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 477-4237.
