Popular Missoula City Councilor Will Ask for Recount After Close Loss

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula Municipal Election has engendered at least one request for a recount after Ward 6 City Councilor Sandra Vasecka lost to her opponent Sean Patrick McCoy by five votes at the last count.

KGVO News spoke to Vasecka early Wednesday morning after the back-and-forth results that occurred overnight.

Ward 6 Sandra Vasecka Lost by Five Votes at the last Count

“Apparently I attract controversy because four years ago I won by 12 votes and currently I am losing by five votes,” began Vasecka. “This just reiterates that every vote truly does matter so all the listeners there that decided not to vote made a difference.”

Vasecka said the recent redrawing of the various city wards may have contributed to her five-point loss.

“We just did this in about February of this year, and we did it about two years ago as well to redraw the ward boundaries, and that was because population increases, and so the density of voters in each district changes,” she said. “So the city wants to make it very, pretty consistent with the amount of people in each district or in each ward, so it just kind of shifts.”

Vasecka confirmed her request for an official recount of votes in Ward 6.

"I am going to ask for a recount because if it was going to financially cost my campaign money to do that, I wouldn't but because it's less than a quarter of a percent, then it is a mandatory recount, but it's only mandatory if I asked for it so I am going to ask for it," she said. "I guess there are still 12 provisional ballots out there that are there contested ballots so the signatures didn't quite match up."

Administrator Bradley Seaman explained the Recount Procedure

KGVO News reached out to Missoula County Elections Administrator Bradley Seaman who explained the recount procedure.

“There's a five-vote difference, and we currently have 12 ballots from Ward 6 that were rejected due to signature issues,” began Seaman. “Whenever that happens, we reject that ballot and set it aside, but we contact that voter and say, your vote's important. We want to make sure that your vote gets counted and we need you to reply to this letter, come in person, or contact our office to resolve that. This is one of the very few areas where a postmark applies. If a voter receives this, corrects their signature, and mails it back to us with a postmark of today's date, and we get it by Monday, then we will include it in the count as well. That means our numbers could change a little Monday.”

KGVO News will closely follow the recount process.