Tracking down voters who cast their ballots in last week's tight Tulsa city council district 3 election

Next week, the Tulsa County Election Board re-counts the ballots cast in the cityâ€™s District 3 Democratic city council primary. <br><br>Roscoe Turner lost by four votes to David Patrick in last week's

Wednesday, February 11th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Next week, the Tulsa County Election Board re-counts the ballots cast in the cityâ€™s District 3 Democratic city council primary.

Roscoe Turner lost by four votes to David Patrick in last week's election. But as News on 6 reporter Patrina Adger discovered, at least two people who voted in the election don't live at the addresses they claim to.

â€œYou work hard to try and win an election and then you discover discrepancies and irregularities and it's quite confusing.â€ Roscoe Turner thought he had won the District 3 race for city councilman, but the final tally showed him losing by four votes.

He went to the election board where he noticed a high number of votes coming out of Precinct 16. "Supposedly, they got 57 votes out of Precinct 16 and I remember Precinct 16 used to put out 12 or 15 votes."

He got a list of the registered voters in that precinct and went to their houses to see where the votes were coming from. The registry shows a Wanda Kinkade who lives at 124 North Zunis, signed her name and voted on election day.

The election board's database shows she's been a registered voter since 1976 and has a long history of voting in school and special elections. So, we went to 124 North Zunis to talk to Wanda Kinkade. No house for 124. A neighbor tells me there hasn't been a house there in the past 6 years.

There are three registered voters named McClure at a house at 10 South Zunis. There are two election day signatures indicating they voted, but when we went by the house it was boarded up.

The election board says all Tulsa County voters must have a registration card with their name and address in order to vote, but state law doesn't require them to show an ID to precinct workers.

Turner says that law has to change. He says he found at least a half a dozen voters who didn't live at the address they signed under; he says it's those votes which "could" make a difference in who fills the District 3 seat.

Both Turner and Patrick filed for a recount Tuesday. That will happen sometime next week.