The following is a release by the County Clerk Doug Smith regarding the recount of votes in the Erie County Controller race:
The margin between Dr. Kyle Foust and incumbent controller Mary Schaaf has been reduced from 53 votes to 33 votes after the recount of machine ballots and provisional ballots. The reason for the change was the discovery of an error by the Elections Department.
It was found mid-morning that the votes from three machines used at Millcreek Township District 4 had not been counted before. Initially Millcreek 4 had been credited with 121 voters, when in fact 510 had voted on Election Day. The flash memory cards from these machines were not included in the election night count. The missing votes were not discovered during the final recanvas November 8th. The discrepancy was noted during a comparison of machines listed by the judge of elections with the vote totals from that district.
The final totals are 27,849 for Dr. Foust and 27, 816 for Mrs. Schaaf. See Attachment. The results for this election still need to be certified by the Election Board that is likely to occur later this week.
In an earlier release, Smith explained the missing votes from a Millcreek voting district:
The margin between Dr. Kyle Foust and incumbent controller Mary Schaaf has been reduced from 53 votes to 46 votes after the recount of machine ballots and provisional ballots. The reason for the change was the discovery of an error by the Elections Department.
It was found mid-morning that the votes from three machines used at Millcreek Township District 4 had not been counted before. Initially Millcreek 4 had been credited with 121 voters, when in fact 510 had voted on Election Day. The flash memory cards from these machines were not included in the election night count. The missing votes were not discovered during the final recanvas November 8th. The discrepancy was noted during a comparison of machines listed by the judge of elections with the vote totals from that district. The votes were re-collected from the machines by the Elections Department and are now included in the recount totals. The margin between Foust and Schaaf changed from 53 votes to 46 votes.
The Election Department is now scanning absentee ballots to finish the process. County Clerk, Doug Smith, “The error discovered this morning falls right in the lap of the Election Department. We should have discovered it between election night and the recanvas of votes on November 8th. I apologize to Mrs. Schaaf and Dr. Foust as well as all Erie County voters for this mistake. Experience is a cruel master, but we will use this experience to re-examine our process and improve it so that this never happens again.”
The Election Department will keep all media outlets up to date on the progress of the count and the margin between candidates in the controller’s race.
