2 Missing Ballots Found After 1-Vote Winner Declared In District 71 Recount

UPDATE The Tulsa County election board said it's discovered two missing ballots. The ballots were found inside a ballot box that was not retrieved by a precinct official on the night of the election. There's a meeting Thursday with a district judge to determine what happens next. Wednesday's recount changed the winner from Democrat Dan Arthrell to Republican Katie Henke.

Original Story
TULSA, Oklahoma -- A recount changed the outcome of a state house race. Election Day totals had a Democrat winning by three votes - but a recount Wednesday put the Republican ahead by one. 

Republican Katie Henke been certified as the winner of the race.

Democrat Dan Arthrell finished ahead by three votes on election night, April 3, 2012, but lost 4 votes in the recount at the Tulsa County Election Board office Wednesday afternoon. 

Democrats want to know how it happened that the number of ballots counted on Election Day is different than the number of ballots counted Wednesday.

The methodical pace of a hand recount can sometimes disguise the drama that's possible in a close election. In this case, 2800 ballots from the House District 71 race were reviewed by a team of election workers.

Two people check each ballot and call out the vote while 2 people do the counting. A person from each political party watches and an election board employee stands ready to help.

It's supposed to be absolutely accurate - but when all of the counting was done - the numbers were off by four from what the voting machines counted on Election Day.

"There is obviously in my mind a question about what appears to be four missing ballots and all of those ballots, in that there's missing, reduced my count by four," said Dan Athrell, House District 71 Democratic Candidate, "It's an interesting thing. I don't know what it means."

What it means for now is that Republican Katie Henke has been certified as the winner of the race. She asked for the recount but wasn't there to watch it turn around the outcome.

"Despite the new machines, we do need to make a recount on these, by hand, to make sure the machines are accurate," Henke's attorney A.J. Ferate said. "I know they've been advertised as the next best thing, and they capture everything, but it appears it was important to do this recount to make sure that all the votes were properly counted."

After all the precincts were counted and the ballots recounted to make sure none had been missed - Democrats argued for a review to resolve the four ballot discrepancy.

The election board in a split vote certified the election - standing on state law that says a recount trumps the original count - even if the numbers are off.

"It's not a real thing if the ballots are missing and that seems to be what happened here," Greg Bledsoe said.

Those questions might come up in court because the Democrats are considering a challenge. This was a special election to fill the unexpired term of a legislator who resigned - and these same two candidates say they'll run again.

State House District 71 runs along the Arkansas River in central Tulsa.

4/6/2012 Related Story: Republican Candidate Calls For Recount In State House District 71 Race