The race for the second open state House seat in Grand Forks' District 43 will go to an automatic recount after the county canvassing board met Monday to re-examine questionable absentee ballots.
According to County Commissioner John Schmisek, the Democratic-NPL incumbent Lois Delmore saw her vote margin over Republican challenger Don Dietrich move from six to seven in the battle for the second of two open seats.
Republican challenger Curt Kreun, a Grand Forks City Council member, won a seat outright with the most votes last week. Newcomer Dem-NPL challenger Don Vangsnes trailed in fourth place.
Delmore's lead is slim enough -- less than a half percent of the leading vote getter's total -- to require an automatic recount, Schmisek said.
Schmisek was one of 13 members of the ad hoc canvassing board that included a Republican and Democratic-NPL representative from each of the county's five legislative districts -- 17, 18, 19, 42 and 43 -- and three county officials, including County Auditor Deb Nelson and a representative from the county recorder's office. They met for several hours Monday.
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After the election last Tuesday, Delmore had 1,890, or 26.05 percent and Dietrich had 1,884, or 25.97 percent, after all seven precincts reported.
Kreun took first place, with 1,963 votes, or 27.06 percent of the total vote and Vangsnes had 1,504, or 20.7 percent.
A total of 7,255 ballots were counted, including 14 write-in votes.
But Monday, the canvassing board looked at 65 absentee ballots that local election officials had questioned; over issues such as if signatures appeared properly, ballots were clear or post-marked in time, before Nov. 2.
Schmisek said the canvassers rejected 32 of the ballots and accepted 33. The net result was that Delmore gained one vote.
Kreun's vote total likely changed slightly on Monday, too, although that information wasn't immediately available to the Herald.
But there weren't the votes to change his front-running status, nor Vangsnes's fourth place finish.
Kreun's vote total is used to compute the half-percent margin; likely to be somewhere between nine and 11 votes. Anything less than nine votes would require an automatic recount. Any margin up to about 38 to 41 votes would allow a candidate to demand a recount.
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The canvassing board's results will be certified by the county commission, Schmisek said.
Nelson said the recount likely will be completed this week.
Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send e-mail to slee@gfherald.com .
