San Juan County Elections will be conducting a recount of the votes cast in Precinct 25, Orcas East, for the Office of Governor. The recount was requested by a representative of a political party.
The County Canvassing Board has scheduled the recount to begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. The recount will take place at the Elections Office at 55 Second St., Suite A, in Friday Harbor. If needed, the recount will continue at 9 a.m., Friday, Dec. 11.
A Canvassing Board meeting to certify the results will follow the recount. The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11.
Both the recount and the Canvassing Board meeting will be livestreamed on the San Juan County Elections YouTube page. To view the livestreams, find the events under “Important Notices and Dates” on the County Elections webpage at www.sanjuanco.com/elections. A link to the YouTube channel will appear next to each event.
Additional information concerning the recount may be obtained by calling the Elections Office at 360-378-3357.
The San Juan County Republicans released the following statement regarding the recount:
“The San Juan County Republican Party has requested a manual recount of a precinct in San Juan County. The method currently used by the auditor’s elections department for the post-election ballot audit shows the random batches compared to the total amount. However, it does not show the comparable in each precinct.
Given that the ‘random batches’ used in the audit show Trump votes within 80% of Biden votes while the final ballot results show Trump is around 30% of Biden in the total counts, it appears questionable. Since our counting machines are the same used in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where there appears to be some questionable activity, and the excitement for the Culp campaign would lead us to believe that his counts should be higher, we are asking for a manual recount of one precinct.
We are not alleging any fraud but would like this verification. This counting will verify the accuracy of the SJC counting machines.”
