After Palo recount, a new winner announced

A quick recount Wednesday afternoon overturned the results of one Palo city council race.

"Tom Sanders is now the unofficial winner," said Tim Box, Linn County deputy commissioner of elections.

The Auditor's Office conducted a recount of write-in votes cast in the Palo city council election after election officials found the number of hand-tallied write-in votes didn't match the number of write-in ballots recorded by the computers.

Incumbent Al Mengler was the unofficial winner, with 98 votes to Sanders' 78. But Sanders' write-in campaign had been shortchanged either by a glitch in the machine, or an error by precinct officials. Some write-in ballots were mixed in with regular ballots, and so weren't counted.

When the problem was fixed, Sanders received 33 more votes, bringing his total to 111. Both candidates watched the recount, Box said.

"They were both satisfied with the end result," Box said.

The Linn County Auditor's Office will investigate to find out exactly what happened. Family members of candidates are not allowed to work at the polls, Box said.