Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo addressed the Commissioners Monday regarding the recent primary election, and state constitutional question.
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Two of the many stipulations of a recount are, it cannot be started until the the vote canvas is approved, and the bond has to be paid by the petitioner.
The canvas was approved Monday, but as of that afternoon, the state had not yet notified Riley County that the $229,000 bond had been received.
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The County Clerk staff have already been working long hours without weekends off for about six weeks. They will forgo breaks, and work long hours to achieve the recount. They will have to recount the ballots in a tiny workspace to be compliant with the chain-of-custody laws of the state. They will work inside the voting-machine vault for the paper ballots, and inside the ballot-box vault for the machine ballots.
Vargo showed the Commissioners the inside of the vaults but they had to remain near the door. He noted that only a couple of people have electronic keys for the vaults, which are video-recorded inside and out.
The constitutional amendment failed by a large margin earlier this month – 165,000 votes, totaling 18%.
