Tight legislative races not changed much by new ballots

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Clark County counted more than 1,100 ballots that had been overlooked because of a computer glitch, but it doesn’t appear that they affected two close legislative races that much.

After the glitch was corrected and the 1,178 ballots were counted Tuesday, Republican state Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver had lost one vote to his rival, state Democratic state Rep. Tim Probst of Vancouver. Overall, however, Benton leads Probst by 104 votes in the 17th District state Senate contest.

Monica Stonier, a Democrat from Vancouver, lost 20 votes to her opponent, Ridgefield Republican Julie Olson. Stonier still leads Olson overall by a 100-vote margin.

Stonier and Olson are running for the 17th District state House seat being vacated by Probst.

It appears both races will trigger a recount under state law.

The ballots in question had initially been scanned but not counted. The problem was discovered last week when it became evident that the number of voters given credit for voting did not match the number of affidavit envelopes received.

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