GOP Backs Hand Recount in Texas Race

— -- As Republicans criticize Democrats for seeking manual recounts in four Florida counties, a bipartisan group of residents in Texas’ northeastern Smith County are set to begin counting ballots by hand, using a method endorsed in a 1997 law signed by Gov. George W. Bush.

ABCNEWS.com

Nov. 18 — As Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s campaign lambasted the hand recount in Florida, a Texas Republican is hoping a manual recount could help win him a seat in the State House of Representatives. And they’ll be checking chads.

A bipartisan group of residents in Texas’s northeastern Smith County will gather Monday to begin counting ballots by hand. But instead of relying on a machine count, the group will use a method endorsed in a 1997 law signed by Bush.

Republican candidate Bill Hollowell was defeated in Nov. 7’s election by incumbent Democratic Representative Bob Glaze of Gilmer.

In the first count, Glaze received 21,496 votes to Hollowell’s 19,416 — winning by 2,080 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

On Monday, the Secretary of State approved Hollowell’s request for a recount in Texas House District 5, which includes Smith, Upshur and Van Zandt counties.

A committee of 12 registered voters, six Republicans and six Democrats chosen by a judge, will carry out the recount in Smith County. Each of the three counties will have its own bipartisan recounting committee. The recount must be completed in all three counties by Nov. 20, said Jane Dees, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State.

A Texas Voter’s True Intent

To determine voter’s true intent, Smith County ballot counters will hold some 11,000 punch cards to the light and stare through holes. They will inspect partly dislodged, dimpled, and so called “pregnant” chads. Ballot counting rooms in District 5 are likely to bear a striking resemblance to the images on television of vote counters examining punch cards in Broward County, Fla. — one of the four heavily democratic counties in which the Gore campaign is seeking a manual recount.