Vote Tally Turmoil Puts Congress Race in Limbo

The race for the Democratic nomination in Orange County’s 40th Congressional District went into limbo Friday when the registrar of voters said the apparent victor, Democratic Party Chairman Bruce Sumner, appeared to be losing as the count progressed.

But a top election official said that many write-in ballots appear to have been overlooked when precinct workers counted them by hand on election night and that a formal recount will probably show Sumner the winner.

Sumner, 61, a retired judge, ran a write-in campaign in an effort to prevent Art Hoffmann, a follower of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. and the only Democrat listed on the ballot, from becoming the Democratic Party’s standard bearer.

According to Wednesday morning’s unofficial returns, Sumner won by a 1,459-vote margin. It seemed to be a rare triumph for a write-in candidate--in a race that had attracted nationwide attention.

Behind in New Count

But on Friday, Registrar A. E. Olson said the official hand count of write-in votes for Sumner now puts him 465 votes behind Hoffmann.

The vote probably will not be certified until next week, Olson said, but he added: “Based on these totals, Sumner has lost. If no recount is requested, Sumner will have lost.”

When he learned this Friday, Sumner said that as soon as the vote is certified, he will demand a recount.

Questions about the eventual winner emerged because of the nature of the vote-counting process.

While votes for all other candidates are counted by machine, write-in votes are tallied by hand by precinct workers after the polls close. Precinct workers not only look to see that a ballot has been punched for a write-in candidate but examine the ballot to see if a candidate’s name was included.

‘Some Guy Being Funny’

“Just because there’s a punch in the write-in position, doesn’t mean anything has been written in there at all,” Olson said. “Or it could be some guy being funny--voting for his neighbor.”

The write-in ballots are also run through the registrar’s vote-counting machines to pick up votes for other candidates and ballot propositions. At the same time, the machine records the total of holes punched “in the write-in position,” Olson said.

In the 40th District congressional race, there is now an unusually wide disparity--a difference of nearly 2,000 votes--between the machine tally for write-in votes and the hand tally, he said.

Olson on Wednesday quoted a machine tally of write-in ballots that gave Sumner 16,342 votes to Hoffmann’s 14,883. With the addition of late ballots, the tally stood Friday at 16,591 for Sumner to 15,089 for Hoffmann.

Meanwhile, the hand tally submitted by precinct workers for Sumner was only 14,624, Olson said.

Disparity Unexplained

Olson said he could not easily explain the disparity of nearly 2,000 between the machine count and the hand count for Sumner.

“Maybe some votes didn’t count at all (in the hand tally) that were written in for Sumner. Or possibly some were missed or blank or written in with funny names”--votes for Mickey Mouse or Santa Claus, Olson said.

But one election official who requested anonymity said Friday that he believes that a recount would “likely show Bruce Sumner’s the winner.”

Because of the disparity, the official said he was “skeptical” of the hand tallies and questioned whether precinct workers had done their job properly.

On Friday, Sumner said there is no question he will ask for a recount, even if it costs his campaign an additional $5,000.

Will Seek Recount

“I’m going to ask for the recount,” he said. “I find it an incredible difference, an amazing difference” between the machine count and the hand count, he said, adding, “They better get some new precinct people” to do the counting.

Sumner noted that if the certified count turns out to be wrong, the county--and not his campaign--will have to pick up the tab. “If I’m correct in my thinking, we won’t have to pay for it,” Sumner said.

Hoffmann on Friday called the latest tally “a minor turnaround.”

“I’m not going to jump up and down yet until the final certified tally is released by the registrar,” he said. “And I’d be real surprised if they don’t go for a recount. That’s why I’m not going to go into a frenzy yet. I’m going to wait ‘til the fat lady sings.”

Whoever turns out to be the winner faces an uphill battle in trying to unseat the veteran Republican incumbent Rep. Robert E. Badham in the heavily GOP district.

Might Finish by July 4

Olson said a formal recount cannot be requested until the election is certified, probably within 10 days. After the certification, candidates have five days in which to request a recount. Olson said he thinks that any recount, if requested quickly, might be finished before July 4.

The turmoil over the write-in vote is the latest setback for Orange County Democrats who were embarrassed to discover in mid-March that Hoffmann, a technical writer and LaRouche follower, was the only Democrat listed on the ballot for the 40th Congressional District. To prevent Hoffmann from automatically winning the primary election and a Democratic Central Committee seat, Sumner mounted his long-shot write-in campaign.