The Salt Lake County Council may have found compromise in the fight over a proposed audit of county ballots.
The council, acting as the Board of Canvassers, was to meet Wednesday at 3 p.m. for another attempt at finding a way to certify the election results before the state's Thursday deadline. The council's first attempt, on Tuesday, failed miserably after the meeting degenerated into partisan bickering between council members and other elected officials.
Now, some council members are hoping for a solution that, at the very least, appeases both parties. Councilman Winston Wilkinson, who moved for the 24-hour delay on Tuesday so that "cooler heads could prevail," later said that he expected a majority of the council — even if it's not along party lines — to support a decision that will address concerns without further bashing the reputation of County Clerk Sherrie Swensen or the county elections office.
"There's a strong undercurrent for some sort of a compromise," Wilkinson said. "Everybody's going so many directions we need something everybody can agree on."
The dispute has focused on the number of votes Swensen received when compared with other Democratic candidates. Keith Prows, the Republican candidate who received only 38 percent of the vote, and other Republicans have questioned how Swensen got 62 percent of the vote and whether there was a problem with the machines counting the ballots.
One proposed solution will come from Swensen, who has learned from the manufacturer of the computer program that tabulates results that the program can easily be tested for tampering.
Because most of Republicans' concerns have revolved around the security of the clerk's computer system, Swensen said that the test would prove that the system was safe. Additionally, testing the system would not violate election laws that do not allow the examining of ballots after they have been counted.
"It doesn't sound very complicated," Swensen said. "That would satisfy their concerns, so I don't see why they would even need to open the ballots."
Both Democratic and Republican council members spent most of their 90-minute meeting Tuesday flinging innuendoes about underhanded political maneuvering and arguing about negative comments to the news media. Republicans also became engaged in a shouting match with Democratic District Attorney David Yocom about representation. Yocom has primarily advised Swensen, and his office issued an opinion that essentially said that any hand-counting of ballots was illegal.
Republicans are still considering hiring a separate attorney, although they may look at that following the certification of the ballots. They could also ask for a recount of the ballots.
Councilman Michael Jensen said that the district attorney's opinion "does not give a lot of wiggle room," although he would still prefer to find a way to audit the ballots of one precinct.
"I honestly believe Sherrie (Swensen) won by that margin and voters like her," he said. "I don't know why they (the Democrats) are so afraid of proving it."
E-MAIL: jloftin@desnews.com