We are learning today that there are still more ballots to be counted in Cascade County and it could affect the race for Cascade County Elections Director.  Incumbent Democrat Rina Fontana-Moore is trailing by just 20 votes in the race to challenger Republican Sandra Merchant.  The ballots that still have to be counted are about about 50 military ballots, 57 provisional ballots and about 23 mismatch ballots where signatures did not match.  This means the race could still be anybody's.

Rina Fontana-Moore
Rina Fontana-Moore
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Rina Fontana-Moore

Those approximately 130 ballots are secured and will be taken by the sheriff's department to the fairgrounds where they will be counted Monday at 3p by state law. This means we could be in for a wild finish to this race.

Sandra Merchant
Sandra Merchant
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Sandra Merchant

Lynn Deroche, who is the the election supervisor, she works underneath Moore for the county, will oversee the counting and all ballots will go through the vote tabulator.   If this race falls within a quarter percent it would trigger an automatic recount by law. The recount would be done by hand by our Three Cascade County Commissioners with the public allowed to watch.  The recount would be paid for by the county.  That recount would take about a week to complete with a total of about 31,000 ballots.

If after all ballots are counted Monday, the total margin of victory falls in between a quarter and one-half percent margin the loser could ask for a recount at their own expense.

We talked with Elections Director Rina Fontana-Moore on if she would call for a recount at her own expense,  she told us she would, "never do it,"  adding the election system in place is accurate.  Moore says she would like to stay in the position but she's also okay with moving on.  She's held the seat the past 16-years.

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