Crowley's lead over the candidate with the next-most votes, Geoff Badenoch, increased from two to five votes. The recount set her final total at 1,585 votes and Badenoch's at 1,580.
"I'm relieved," Crowley said after Missoula County Clerk and Recorder/Treasurer Vickie Zeier announced the final numbers at about 4 p.m. "We had to cast any doubt aside. And we did."
"The precision and the caring - as a candidate, I was very appreciative of that," he said. "I think we can all tell the citizens that our system is working."
The two candidates who will campaign toward the general election Nov. 8 are Crowley and top vote-getter John Engen. Engen's total votes were 2,592; he picked up one vote in the recount.
Both Engen and Crowley serve on the Missoula City Council. Both are at the end of their terms.
The totals on election night put Crowley at 1,583 and Badenoch at 1,580. Those results were unofficial until the vote was canvassed. A canvassing board of three elected officials compared the total ballots to the total number of voters recorded in the precinct books. The books were sealed until the canvass.
During the canvass Sept. 16, the board discovered an uncounted absentee ballot cast for Badenoch. The margin narrowed to two votes.
During Friday's recount, the totals changed because of another human error. When the ballots are printed, each precinct's ballots are different, Zeier explained. Candidates' names are printed in different orders, and each precinct has a number code.
The first 10 ballots for Precinct 98 were accidentally printed on ballots coded for Precinct 97. Instead of having a tiny "55" in the corner, each had a tiny "54." Eight of these 10 ballots were given out as absentee ballots. When the M100 scanning machines read the eight ballots, they read them as Precinct 97 ballots because the code told them to. Because the candidates were in the wrong order, the votes were credited to the wrong people.
It probably happened when 10 sheets of coded paper were left in the press when Precinct 97 was printed, and the printer moved on to 98, Zeier said.
"The recount's what caught it," she said. "That's why it's a safeguard."
Zeier was pleased that the M100s were doing their job. The scanners, which sit at the polling places and accept ballots directly from voters, have greatly improved the speed of results. They've been used in Missoula County since the school election in April 2004.
The scanners determine the intent of most voters because they reject ballots with errors - for instance, if a voter marks the ovals in front of two candidates when he or she is supposed to be voting for one. Most voters fix their errors.
However, in the city primary, 17 ballots were rejected by the scanner but reaffirmed by voters resubmitting them.
"We have 17 ballots in question," Zeier told the Recount Board at the beginning of the recount Friday morning.
Board members, who were Jean Curtiss and Bill Carey of the Board of County Commissioners and County Auditor Barbara Berens, came across the ballots among the precincts. Deputy County Attorney Mike Sehestedt was on hand to give final opinions in view of the secretary of state's rules and the law as enunciated by the Montana Supreme Court.
"The overriding touchstone of everything is voter intent," he said. "The key is can you look at the ballot and say, 'I know who this candidate was voting for'?"
A voter might, for instance, use an "X" or a check mark instead of blackening the ovals. If the voter used that mark throughout the ballot, it would be interpreted as the voter's intent to vote for the candidates he or she checked or "X"ed. If one oval is checked, and the others are all blackened, the checked one would be scrutinized for intent and likely rejected; the secretary of state's rules instruct judges of intent to look for consistency, among other things.
Another common reason for a ballot to be rejected is for a stray pencil mark in an oval, called a "hesitation mark." Those are also looked at for intent and are usually clear, he said.
Sehestedt didn't anticipate having much to do on Friday, he said in the morning, and he was right.
"There've been no questionable ballots," Zeier said at the end of the day. "There's been nothing for Mike to look at."
The rejected ballots were ballots on which voters clearly blackened more than one oval. Those ballots are invalid because it's impossible to determine voter intent.
The primary mayor's race had six candidates.
Neither Crowley nor Badenoch stopped campaigning in the nine days between the primary and the recount. But now the final field is set.
"So now we start again," Crowley said. "Now John (Engen) and I can discuss the issues more in-depth."
Engen, too, has continued to campaign.
"I'm going to continue to run for mayor," he said when contacted for comment on the recount results. "And our message isn't going to change, no matter who's in the race. We're going to remain positive and keep plugging away."
Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at gmerriam@missoulian.com
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