ST. GEORGE — In a legal complaint served to the Washington County Clerk/Auditor Monday, Willie Billings calls for a hand recount of the votes for the House District 72 Republican primary race and subsequent overturning of the election should the recount come out in his favor.
The lawsuit stems from the original House 72 primary recount recently conducted by the County Clerk/Auditor Office at Billings’ request. The original vote tally for the race was too close to call with a near 50/50 split between Billings and opponent Joseph Elison with the latter in a razor-thin lead.
At the time, the total votes received in the primary race was 8,255 with seven votes in Elison’s favor. The following recount produced four new votes for Elison who maintained a lead in the race. Despite protests from Billings and his supporters, the Washington County Commission certified the recount results and Elison was pronounced the winner in the House 72 primary race.
The bulk of Billings’ lawsuit focuses on numbers gained from the results of an audit conducted on the recount results. In the lawsuit, Billings contends the recount audit provides a more accurate representation of the election results based on a random sampling.
Susan Lewis, the Washington County clerk/auditor, has repeatedly argued that the purpose of the audit is not to provide a sampling of the overall election results but rather to confirm the accuracy of the process used by the county to conduct the recount.
According to the lawsuit, 21 batches of ballots were randomly picked from a total of 691 batches for the audit. Each batch contains 50 ballots. Overall, 34,370 votes were cast in the primary election.
The random ballots were run through a machine while county staff reviewed what was on the ballot versus what had originally been scanned in by the machines.
A total of 1,035 ballots were audited with 227 of those being related to the House 72 race. The lawsuit states that of those votes, Billings received 138 votes while Elison received 89. Putting it in terms of batches, the lawsuit says Billings won 15 of the 21 used in the recount audit. Percentage wise, these results gave Billings 66% of the House 72 vote to Elison’s 33%.
An overall ratio of the results places Billings ahead of Elison in a 60/40 split, according to the lawsuit.
These results are similar to the results Billings received during the Washington County Republican nominating convention in April where he gained 62% of the delegate vote. Though he defeated Elison for the party’s official nomination for House 72, Elison was able to secure a place on the primary ballot by gathering signatures beforehand.
The results were given to statistician Cynthia Butler for review. Her findings, which were added as an exhibit attached to Billings’ complaint, claim to have found discrepancies between the recount results and audit results. In her conclusion, Butler states that “an increase in vote% from 50% to 61% would change the outcome of the election, making candidate Willie Billings the winner of State House Dist 72.”
Should a judge rule in favor of Billings’ complaint, it will make way for a new recount to be done by hand. This, he has previously stated, will help alleviate worries voters have in regards to machines counting votes instead.
Should the recount occur, both Billings and Elison would be allowed two individuals each to be physically present to watch the process. Once completed, the results of the recount would be submitted to the court to reaffirm the previously approved results or annul them.
Should the results be annulled, the lawsuit calls on the court to declare Billings the winner of the primary election for House 72.
Lewis is named in the lawsuit in her capacity as the Washington County clerk/auditor. Elison’s name was also listed.
Lewis declined to comment on the issue Tuesday and referred St. George News to Washington County Deputy Attorney Victoria Hales.
“We won’t comment on the pending litigation,” Hales said, though she added the county was free to speak on matters of public matters.
Lewis was served with Billings’ complaint Monday and gave the county five business days to respond.
“In that answer we will vigorously defend our elected officials and the county,” Hales said. “We believe our processes for election are very sound and worked well in the instance of the Elison versus Billings primary race.”
The county’s response is expected to be filed Monday.
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