Election workers to resume recounting ballots from sheriff election

SAPULPA, Okla. (AP) -- Election workers on Friday will resume recounting the ballots cast in the Creek County sheriff race last week.

District Attorney Max Cook ordered the count stopped at 9:50 p.mter problems arose with the tabulation. Cook said 38 of the 40 precincts had been counted. He said the work would begin again at 11 a.m. Friday.

"They are having trouble with the vote count vs. the number of ballots," he said. "Apparently, there are some `spoiled' ballots that have been mingled with the good ballots.

"Right now, we're trying to see if there is a way of determining what ballots were spoiled and what are valid ballots."

Spoiled ballots, on which votes are ambiguously cast, are automatically rejected in a machine count, Cook said.

He will meet with election and legal officials Friday in an effort to determine how to proceed.

"Lawyers will give input," he said. "We'll see if there's any guidance from the statutes or case law. If not, a judge will resolve it in whatever fashion Tuesday."

Democratic incumbent Larry Fugate, 48, had requested the recount one day after Republican Steve Toliver defeated him by only 14 votes in an unofficial general election tally of 11,589 to 11,575.

"You spend nine months campaigning, and you think it's going to come down to Nov. 7," said Toliver, a 43-year-old Sapulpa police lieutenant. "And it didn't. This has prolonged it a week and a half.

"But we've gone this long. It's not a problem to go a little longer. No hard feelings. If I was in his position, I would ask for a recount, too."

In a petition filed in Creek County District Court on Monday, Fugate alleged that irregularities had occurred in distributing the ballots during the general election.

The sheriff alleged that at precincts in Slick and Bristow, voters were denied their right to vote when a shortage of ballots forced them to cast sample ballots or write their picks on pieces of paper.

Fugate's petition asks that he be certified the winner or that no winner be certified because "it is impossible to determine with mathematical certainty" who won.

A hearing on the question has been rescheduled for Tuesday morning, District Judge Donald Thompson said.

"The irregularities are between the Election Board and Sheriff Fugate," said Toliver, who has hired legal representation to look after his interests. "We haven't seen anything that resembles an irregularity."

Fugate, who became sheriff in 1995, said he likely would withdraw his petition if he prevailed in the recount.

"If it goes into Mr. Fugate's favor, I'll shake his hand and congratulate him and wish him luck over the next four years,"

Toliver said.

Fugate put up $250 for the petition and $3,000 for the recount, court records show. The sheriff will get his recount money back if he wins, Election Board Secretary Joy Naifeh said.