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Chuck Sauders doesn't mind if Sterling Watkins wants a recount of the District 4 Warsaw School Board election.
But Thursday, Sauders said he is against a revote. First, a revote would not really represent Tuesday's election, he said, because the same people who showed up on Tuesday would have to show up for the revote. "That's not going to happen," he said.
He said some of the voters who went to the polls Tuesday may be out of town. Some only showed up because of the presidential race and if a revote was held, those same people may not show up again.
Wednesday, citing the close race and a problem at a precinct, Watkins told the Times-Union he plans to contest the district election.
In Tuesday's election, Charles E. "Chuck" Sauders received 767 votes to Watkins' 762 votes.
The problem with the election occurred at Warsaw Ward 2, Precinct 1 when a voting machine did not include the District 4 candidates on the ballot. The machine was shut down as soon as the problem was found, but as many as 63 votes could have been affected.
Sauders said the problem was an electoral mistake that neither he nor Watkins wanted. But a re-vote would not be an accurate representation.
Also, they don't have an accurate count of how many people were affected by the voting problem Tuesday. Sauders said he didn't know why up to 60 people voted before any voter realized there was a problem with the ballot.
"This re-election is not going to be a true representation because we had the election on Tuesday," Sauders said. "... Let's not make up a new election where people who did not vote may go back and vote."
He said he would not sue to stop a re-vote and would not hire a lawyer, but he said, "I would challenge the re-vote, yes."
Watkins has until Tuesday to contest the results.
