Candidates go on coaster ride

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
“It was definitely a roller coaster ride, and a bit confusing,” said Vera Huber, a Weston County Commission candidate. Huber was referring to the results of the Aug. 18 primary election. 
“It was a bit crazy,” she said.
The unofficial results, as reported by the News Letter Journal on the newspaper’s Facebook page, on Tuesday represented what the newspaper thought was 100% of the ballots cast. The results had been based on the unofficial count from Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock. The News Letter Journal reported Huber as the winner over fellow candidate and now-Commissioner-elect Don Taylor. Incumbent Ed Wagoner received the most votes of the three candidates in both the Aug. 18 and Aug. 21 reports. The top-two vote-getters were declared victors.
“It was the highest high and the lowest low,” Taylor said. “I was
disappointed at first and then elated. I can’t image how Vera felt.”
Hadlock told the News Letter Journal on Thursday that one of the necessary boxes was not checked properly on the computer before the unofficial election report was compiled. 
“Once I noticed it, we went back in, hit the button and reprinted,” Hadlock said. “They were the unofficial results, and we gave the new results as soon as we noticed. It wasn’t that big of a deal.” 
Jim Angell, longtime journalist and operator of the Wyoming News Exchange  said that while these mistakes don’t happen often, he has seen them. 
“I started covering elections in 1986, and I have seen Teton and Laramie county both make mistakes once. These things happen,” Angell said. “It doesn’t happen to everyone, and it doesn’t happen often, but mistakes do happen.” 
Still, Angell said, he has not seen mistakes like this one change the outcome of a specific race. 
According to the results that were posted as official on Friday, Aug. 21, Huber received 1,074 votes, or 25.83% of total votes cast in the commissioner race; Taylor received 1,077 votes, or 25.90%; and Wagoner received 1,098 votes or 26.41%. 
“We conducted a recount of the county commissioner race Wednesday morning due to the race being so close (per state statute),” Hadlock said. 
The number of voters who showed up at the polls this year was down slightly from the 2018 primary election, Hadlock said. She reported that 2,347 voters came out for the 2018 Weston County primary, while this year the three polling venues in the county serviced 2,230 voters. 
Further breakdown of the county voting population shows 2,079 Republican ballots cast, 107 Democrat ballots cast and 44 nonpartisan ballots. According to Hadlock, 712 total absentee ballots were requested in the county, with only 654 being returned for counting and processing. 
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.