Davis candidate isn't giving up

Published: Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 4:55 p.m. MST
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On the surface, it appears the race for the House District 14 seat wasn't even close. Republican Curt Oda won the Davis County district with about 80 percent of the vote.

But Democrat Tab Uno who earned only 20 percent isn't ready to throw in the towel. He said he's working closely with the state Democratic Party and considering asking for a recount.

"At this point all I can say is if you look at the numbers, the numbers of ballots cast and the numbers who voted . . . the numbers don't add up," Uno said. "I would say there's at least 1,000 votes not accounted for."

While state election officials couldn't be reached Saturday to discuss if they were looking into voting irregularities, it wouldn't be the first time the issue arose this year.

In Utah County, a programming mistake caused punch-card reading machines to not count 33,000 straight-party votes. A recount did not change the outcome of any of the races.

Oda said he understood the challenge was based on an undercount, but noted that the count would have had to have been seriously flawed to change the election outcome.

Oda had 3,365 more votes than Uno, according to the State Elections Office. Libertarian Chadler E. Cowles had 12 votes. Uno did not specify in what way he thought the votes might be off, but said the integrity of the Davis County election process is at stake.

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"If we can't count on the election results reporting what people actually voted, it calls into question the entire election," he said.

Uno said he will make his decision by Nov. 26 on whether to ask for the recount. He would have to pay for the recount.

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