By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Missouri State Representative Rick Johnson confirmed Wednesday he will seek a recount in Tuesday's tight race for State Senate.
Republican Bill Alter, a former State Representative, beat Johnson by just 66 votes out of more than 20,000 cast.
Johnson's re-count request would automatically be granted because he finished within 1% of Alter.
Meanwhile, election officials in Jefferson County are working to verify the results the four-way race for State Senate. Johnson's recount request couldn't come until after the county verifies, and the state certifies the results.
OPTICAL SCAN BALLOTS
This was the first time Jefferson Countians used optical scan ballots, and Johnson notes the computer counted 189 ballots where no one voted in the Senate race: "Sometimes it rejects ballots because the bubble wasn't fully filled in and so on and so forth. So, we'll just have to wait and see."
But Alter says the machines are too reliable to be 66 votes off.
"These machines - they're so sophisticated that they kick out ballots that are in one way or another invalid and give the voter an opportunity to get a new ballot and re-mark them. So that shouldn't be a factor."
Independent candidate Harold Selby finished a strong third, with Independent 'Zip' Rzeppa finished fourth.
The race is to fill the seat in the Missouri Senate of Steve Stoll, who resigned in January to become the Festus City Administrator.