From the Tribune:

Democrat requests recount in tight suburb race

By Ted Gregory
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 4, 2006, 7:55 PM CST

Twenty-seven days after the election to fill retiring state Rep. Lee Daniels' seat, Democrat Joe Vosicky, who appeared to have lost by 296 votes to GOP nominee Dennis Reboletti, has asked for a partial recount.

Vosicky, an attorney from Elmhurst, made it under the wire by one hour Monday with his request to the DuPage County Election Commission. The recount in selected precincts for the House District 46 seat is expected to begin next week.

Almost 27,000 votes were cast Nov. 7 in the race to succeed Daniels (R-Elmhurst), former House speaker, in the once-solid GOP stronghold. But Vosicky's campaign manager, Bob Peickert, said they have concerns about three purported irregularities: a number of computer memory voting cards uploaded about three days after the vote, more votes cast than ballots issued in one precinct and unsealed boxes of ballots.

DuPage County uses an optical-scan ballot in which voters fill in a circle next to their choice. Those ballots are fed into a machine that reads the darkest marks on the ballot as votes.

"There were certainly things that don't add up," Peickert said, "and the only way to get any answers is to get a recount."

Reboletti said Monday that he already is hiring staff and hunting for office space. He said he has traveled to Springfield twice to caucus with other House Republicans.

"My opponent is entitled to whatever due process he may think is appropriate," said Reboletti, also of Elmhurst. "But it's my understanding that the integrity of the election has not been compromised in any way, shape or form. This election is over."

The review is expected to run for several days, said Robert Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission. State law allows a candidate to seek a recount of a quarter of precincts in an election where the losing candidate's vote total was within 5 percent of the winner's. Preliminary totals showed that Reboletti received about 50.5 percent of the vote. The "straight discovery" recount calls for commission staff to re-tabulate the optical-scan ballots and review in detail the voting paperwork, including ballot records and applications, in each of the 21 precincts Vosicky selected, Saar said. Representatives of each candidate attend and monitor the review.

Saar said he has worked on about 40 such reviews in his 25 years on the Election Commission, with none overturning preliminary election results.

"Usually what happens is the candidate will pick up a vote in one precinct and lose one in another," Saar said. "These election counts are pretty darn accurate."

Vosicky will pay about $210 for the partial recount, Saar said. After that examination, Vosicky can receive a "redundant count," which is a hand counting of the selected precincts, a process that costs $200 an hour, Saar said.

If the "redundant count" yields valid evidence of significant voter irregularities, Vosicky could take his argument to a DuPage County Circuit Court judge, who could, among many options, order a full recount, Saar said.

Peickert said he was unsure how far Vosicky's camp would push the fight.

"Whatever the outcome is will determine whether or not there is a next step," Peickert said.

The campaign put "a great deal of thought and review" into deciding to file for the partial recount, he said.

"If the answers are there, then nobody has anything to worry about," Peickert said. "We just want to find out what the answers are."