Cochran, Clere race not over yet

Election 2008

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November 11, 2008

By DANIEL SUDDEATH The News and Tribune Tue Nov 11, 2008, 04:58 PM EST

The race for State Representative District 72 between Republican Ed Clere and incumbent Democrat Bill Cochran isn’t over yet.

Clere was named the unofficial winner after besting Cochran by 114 votes Tuesday. Provisional ballots could narrow or even erase that gap, with those votes still waiting to be tallied in Floyd County and the one precinct District 72 covers in Clark County.

Though one election official estimated there were about 200 provisional votes to be counted in Floyd County, Clerk Linda Moeller said there is no way to know for sure as they have remained sealed since being cast.

The ballots have stayed in a safe with two locks protecting them — one lock belongs to the county’s Republican committee, the other to its Democratic counterpart.

The provisionals will be counted Wednesday by the county’s election board, which consists of Democrat William Lohmeyer, Republican James Hancock and Moeller.

“Nobody has looked at them and nobody knows how many we have,” Moeller said.

Provisionals can be cast for various reasons including a voter not having proper identification or not appearing on the roll for a specific precinct.

Moeller said during the May primary, all but one provisional was claimed by the voter.

Those who cast provisionals for Tuesday’s election have until Nov. 14 to provide the proper documentation to the election board.

“Usually people will make a good effort after the election to get in here and do it,” Moeller said of voters verifying their identification.

In addition to counting provisionals, military absentee ballots from those serving overseas that were sent before the election are still rolling into the clerk’s office. They will also be tallied and added to the count.

Including the Clere versus Cochran race, Moeller said it’s not uncommon to see other contests decided by provisionals.

“We’ve had some of the other minor races in the county where there was sometimes a two or three vote difference,” she said.

Clark County has also yet to get an official count on their provisionals.

Drama update

The Tribune reported during Tuesday’s precinct at the clerk’s office that Cochran and some of his supporters were seen entering Moeller’s office, shutting the door behind them.

Moeller was in an adjacent office at the time helping with vote counting.

Clere, after seeing the door closed, immediately brought the situation to the attention of Moeller and threatened to call for the sheriff since he didn’t know if there was sensitive material in the office.

The Tribune reported Moeller asked Cochran to leave her office, as he and his supporters were seen leaving immediately after she opened the door and told them it was not to be closed.

Moeller said she didn’t ask Cochran or anybody to leave, only to leave the door open.

“To me it was appearances. I wanted them to leave the door open. It was stressful for both [Cochran and Clere]. I thought for appearance everything should be open,” she said Thursday.

Cochran has yet to return phone calls made by The Tribune. Clere said he just felt uncomfortable to see Cochran and his supporters in the clerk’s office with the door closed.

He added Moeller did everything by the book after becoming aware of the situation.

Moeller said there was not any sensitive information related to the vote count in her office when Cochran and his supporters were inside it.

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