ELMORE COUNTY, Idaho — Election officials in Elmore County have been reviewing ballots by hand after discovering that about 300 legally cast votes were never counted in the certified results from this month’s election, according to state election officials.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane said the discrepancy was identified during a statewide post-election audit, prompting a full hand review of every ballot cast in the county.
WATCH: A hand recount in Elmore County after 300 votes were missed on election day
"We're doing a full recount of all of Elmore County ballots to ensure that every single ballot is counted and every single vote is counted," McGrane told Idaho News 6.
McGrane said the ballots were never missing, but the votes did not appear in the original totals for reasons still under investigation.
"At all times, the ballots have been in the custody of the clerk's office, and every indication is [that] all the ballots were processed on election night, but for some reason there were not results," McGrane said.
Mountain Home City Council candidate Decker Sanders said he supports the hand-count process and the way officials have responded since the error was discovered.
"I could not ask for better. It is a human process being run by human beings," Sanders said.
RELATED | Elmore County races could flip after the recount of roughly 300 uncounted ballots
Sanders said he is prepared to accept the outcome regardless of the final tally.
"I will tell you, even if I don't prevail in this race, I will walk away knowing it's a true outcome. And that's what I'm looking for," he said.
Part of the review also examined questions of voter intent, including ballots where the marking may not have been read correctly by tabulation machines.
"So what we have here is a ballot that was marked, but you'll notice that that mark is not in the oval. That means the machine would not likely have read it," McGrane said while demonstrating an example ballot during the recount.
