Recount continues in St. Joseph County Sheriff's race

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Monday, the recount commission started counting all of the absentee ballots from last month's Democratic primary between Bill Redman and Tim Corbett. 

Redman, the primary winner, received three more votes, meaning there's currently a 15-vote difference between Redman and Corbett. 

However, the commission still needs to review more absentee ballots. On Monday, the commission reviewed absentee ballots from 127 of the 220 voting precincts in St. Joseph County.

"The parties agreed that doing the absentee ballots first, would provide a representative sample of the entire county so that they can check if there is any deviation in the vote," said Jim Korpal. Korpal is the chairman of the recount commission. 

Corbett filed for a recount at the beginning of June after losing by 16 votes to Redman in May's primary.

"Fairly small changes," said Korpal. "Few and far in between." 

Pat Schafer with the recount commission says some absentee ballots are incorrectly filled out , so the commission must determine the intent of the voter and that’s why some votes change. 

"There was one that the Redman bubble was completely filled in and also there was just a tiny mark for Corbett," said Schafer. "We felt that the intent of the voter for that one was for Redman since it was filled in." 

"She adds while it’s tedious, it’s an important job.

"We always want every vote to count for everybody," said Schafer. "When they take the time to go to the polls to vote, we want to make sure their vote counts."  

Corbett's attorney declined to comment.

Redman's attorney said that Redman thinks the votes were counted fairly and accurately the first time, and will be counted the same way the second time. 

The recount commission is scheduled to finish counting the absentee ballots tomorrow at 10 a.m. From there a decision will be made Corbett and his team to decide whether or not to accept the results or ask that all of the votes from May's primary be recounted. 

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