Missing, Misplaced, and Miscounted Ballots: Bellows Brushes Off “Snafus” on 2nd Day of Recounts for Tight Maine House Seats

The Maine Secretary of State on Monday continued with a series of recounts in races for the State Legislature that were decided by thin margins on election night.

But the process hit some bumps in the road as recount staff initially couldn’t account for nearly 100 missing, misplaced, or miscounted ballots in House District 98.

Calling the discovery of missing ballots a “snafu,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) gave “kudos” to her staff for identifying the ballot deficit.

House District 98, which includes Pownal, Durham, and parts of Topsham and Bowdoin, saw Democrat Kilton Webb named the winner over Republican Guy Lebida on Nov. 5 by a margin of 54 votes.

Webb’s victory was confirmed Monday evening, but only after the Maine State Police had to be dispatched to Topsham and Pownal in search of missing ballots.

Although the recount session, which began at 9 a.m., was supposed to conclude around noon on Monday, inefficiencies and a diverse menu of “snafus” caused the comedy of errors to run until past 5 p.m.

“This one was a long one,” said Bellows.

First, the counters discovered two dozen missing ballots from the town of Pownal; however, those ballots were later found.

Twenty ballots were misplaced in the large counting room where dozens of people were enlisted to hand-count ballots.

Another four had been accidentally mixed with separate referenda ballot sheets from the town.

Those misplaced ballots were discovered after Bellows had the Maine State Police (MSP) dispatched to recover the referenda ballot boxes from Pownal just in case there were candidate ballots hiding within those lockboxes, which turned out to be the case.

“Why do we care about four ballots, you say,” Bellows asked. “Because literally, in these recounts, it could come down to a single vote, and we want to make sure — crystal clear — that the integrity of the recount is clear,” she said.

“Oh, did we find some ballots?” she then exclaimed.

[RELATED: Here’s the Recount Schedule for Seats in Maine House of Representatives…]

After the Pownal count was settled, the counters discovered missing ballots from Topsham — 60, all told — leading to another quick ballot-run by MSP troopers to fetch another batch of ballots.

“We’re hoping that the 60 ballots will be in that box and we will be able to count and finish Topsham for this recount,” she said.

Hope prevailed as, shortly before 5:00 PM, Bellows announced to her livestream audience that the missing Topsham ballots had indeed been located.

Separately, the counting staff misplaced a handful of ballots that Bellows said were blank for the House race, but those were later accounted for.

In the end, all of the ballots were accounted for, and Lebida agreed to sign off on the recount that reconfirmed his defeat in the election.

Bellows, who excitedly narrated the hunt for missing ballots as if she were the play-by-play announcer at a UMaine football game, said that it sometimes happens, understandably, that tired election clerks will misplace candidate ballots with referenda ballots after a long day of work.

“We know people are human,” she said. “It was probably really late on election night when [the clerks] were sorting.”

She later told her livestream audience that anyone who is good at mathematics should consider a career in counting.

Because the House District 98 margin was less than 1.5 percent, Lebida was permitted under state law to request and receive a recount without having to first pay a non-refundable deposit.

According to Maine state law, “Once a recount is requested for any federal, state or county office, the Secretary of State shall request that the State Police, sworn law enforcement officers employed by the Department of the Secretary of State or other sworn law enforcement officers take physical control of the ballots and other related materials needed for the recount as soon as possible and deliver them to the recount facility.”

Lebida told the Maine Wire that he submitted a written request for a recount on Nov. 12.

Although the House District 81 recount was also supposed to occur today, Bellows announced the decision to delay that process just after 4 p.m., as the Lebida-Webb recount had consumed so much time.

Despite the missing ballots, the atmosphere in the counting room remained jovial throughout the day, with frequent bursts of laughter and plenty of good cheer.

The recounts for state offices began on Friday following the controversial Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) tabulation for Maine’s Second Congressional District.

The first State House race to be recounted was House District 96, where incumbent Democrat Rep. Michael Lajoie’s win was reaffirmed.