Staff member explains ballot-counting procedure and announces recount after discrepancy

A staff member supervising the count said the team will reconcile machine tabulations with paper ballots and perform double checks to ensure accuracy. “We—re going to add in the tabulations from the voting machines to the paper ballots,” the staff member said, adding that “Everybody is going to count through the paper ballots twice, and we make sure we have 2 numbers that are in agreement.”

The staff member described a tiered reconciliation process: if the two independent counts do not match, a third person will recount the ballots to resolve the discrepancy. “And if we don—t have 2 numbers in agreement, we will have a 3rd person count and so on to make sure that the ballots are counted correctly,” they said, and emphasized, “We are gonna be taking our time and care to do this right.”

Observers were given conduct instructions to avoid interrupting the judges doing the count. The staff member asked that people not enter the space in front of the bleachers or cross where judges are counting, noted the presence of an interpreter, and said observers may use restrooms but should not come toward the judges while the count is underway.

Providing an update on results, the staff member said the ballots had been reconciled but that “we have a discrepancy and we—re having to do a recount for the 1 word,” and that final totals will be released once the recount is complete. The staff member thanked observers for their patience and said the count will continue “for as long as it takes.”

The count remains ongoing; officials said they will announce final totals after the recount resolves the discrepancy.