Appeals Court Rules 10 Percent Hand-Count if Election Results Close

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 30, 2008 at 5:03 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

A state appeals court has rebuffed San Diego county's challenge to new state election procedures. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has required county registrars to manually recount 10 percent of the vo

A state appeals court has rebuffed San Diego county's challenge to new state election procedures. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has required county registrars to manually recount 10 percent of the vote in close races. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The county has lost its bid to get the courts to rule in its favor before next Tuesday's election.

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San Diego Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler says she does not expect any races next week to win or lose by one half of one per cent. But if there is a close vote, she says she'll have a lot of work on her hands.

Seiler : To try to hand-count 10 percent of the precincts will be extremely burdensome in terms of staff, space, supervisions and cost.

Supporters of Secretary of State Debra Bowen's new rules say the County should put its resources into obeying the law, not fighting it in court. County attorneys say supervisors will likely decide to pursue their appeal, in the hope that the courts will rule in their favor before the June primary election.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.