Recount? Why did she need to recount a 24-vote loss in a 6000-vote election??

Recounts NEVER overturn election results when the margin is this big and the sampling size is this small. What an insult to Janet Munda and the other fine men & women who run our elections and count our votes to even suggest they missed the count that badly last week. Not surprisingly, they were 100% right on Friday's certified results as well as this time-and-$$$-wasting recount.

How much did Cromer's ego cost the citizens of Cherokee County? Who paid for this complete waste of time - Cromer or the taxpayers??

Congrats to the Cherokee County elections officials for a well-run primary election. Good luck in November!

Obviously these same comments apply to Mr. Ruskell. These people need to do a little bit of research before wasting the time & money of the Cherokee County tax payer. Cherokee County is NOT Dade County, FLA. We don't have 'hanging chads' and crap like that. Our election officials run a very-tight ship and to even suggest they'd miscount that many votes in an election of this size is insulting.

Does anyone know who pays for this? If the candidates themselves picked up the tab, I will delete these posts.

You should delete your posts regardless. Every post I read from you is negative, pompous, arrogant and self-righteous. Having a little grace might further your cause.

The only thing I think that SHOULD be asked,is who is paying for this? I wont go into arrogance,or ego,or self righteousness,but I will ask if a recount was really necessary.

The arrogance! I can't believe a candidate would exercise their right to a recount in an election decided by 24 votes. What is this country coming to when people do what they are permitted under the law to do?

Yeah...it could be ego, self-righteousness, arrogance...whatever.

Or, it COULD be that, when the vote margin is about 4/1000th of a point. the candidates owed it to those people who voted for him or her to request the recount.

Or maybe I'm just being silly.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the cost. It probably added up to the cost of a McDonald's extra value meal...

Steely Dan (or Mikael Kient), I believe fictitious names are not allowed on this site. But that's between you and Rodney.

On the issue at hand -- Recounts -- you are completely off base! A 24-vote margin is tiny and as RL indicated, it is 4/1000th of a point difference. Any number of issues could cause a mistake in vote totals such as Absentee Votes and Provisional Votes.

In this country ALL votes are supposed to count...It's the American way. But you would rather for sake of expediency and to save a little money not question the outcome of an election and potentially allow legitimate votes go uncounted? How un-American!

And to imply that Ms. Cromer and Mr. Ruskell "need to do a little bit of research before wasting the time & money" is a very pompous, arrogant and self-righteous statement from someone who didn't run for office and isn't working within the system to make Cherokee County a better place to live.

This is a formality. The public's perception about the validity of the process continues to dwindle. This "crowd" will grow. It's the Board’s job to change that perception. They thought they did with the unverifiable electronic machines mess. So I guess you are right - the system is so perfect so we don't need recounts- NOT. In a close election; if there is a real concern with a machine how will they recover the data, making sure it's the same as it was or the machine can verify the original input with the output on a single vote card cast? How do we know if people were supposed to vote in a new area that all those votes were counted in the right area or they got the right ballot to vote their slate? You can't; that's a fact. Please don't kill the messenger here -Some of the results were just too improbable based on the strength or weakness of the Candidate.

If you’re upset because you think this is an attack on Ms. Monda and the Board's integrity - nothing could be further form my intent. They are all very sharp folks that know how to their job, honestly and precisely. It's a system they inherited. There is room for this group to make significant improvements by talking the first step. I suggest you go to the party meeting tomorrow morning and start talking about it. We do have November elections coming up. The only way to "guarantee 100%" your vote with the current system is a paper ballot because the old regime would not change what needed to be changed with the electronic machines and they could have. The system does allow for a paper ballot though. You must ask or have it mailed in advance. That becomes a permanent verifiable record during a recount.

As for Ms. Cromer, when she and Ms. Read start talking about "world class education" in as much as I believe the desire the current system they have been advocating for years has made that impossible.

@Steely Dan : Agreed. You see though, the basic changes of "trust but verify" with machines could have all-ready been done. It's to late developing the same scenario you described after a election is questionable. Again, I'm not being accusatory here of our elected officials nor the board - I am of the process they have; by the nature of it, this issue will not go away. I hear more about it from folks every election cycle. It is their job at all costs to protect the integrity of our system. I believe this election cycle is their opportunity to do just that. People often say "Perception is often not reality." I also personalty believe, provided an effort is made in this area we will increase the number of voters - and that;s something we all want. Folks to participate in the process.