Orr to request recount of City Council ballots

D.C. Orr, the Libby resident who narrowly lost election to the Libby City Council in last week’s election, has announced he will formally request a recount of the ballots. Orr received 185 votes, just one behind the third-place finisher Allen Olsen. 

The top three candidates, including Olsen, incumbent Peggy Williams and Brian Zimmerman, were declared victors in the election. State law allows a candidate to request a recount of the ballots in cases where the gap between candidates is narrow, but only after the final canvass is signed by the county commissioners. The canvass was made official at the commissioners’ Tuesday meeting.

Orr said his primary motivation was to inspect 16 ballots which were eliminated from the final vote tally because the voters over-voted, or selected more than the three candidates allowed in this particular election. Under Montana law, the only way Orr can inspect those over-vote ballots is to challenge the official results and ask for a recount. He said he doesn’t trust Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Robin Benson to have honestly administered the election.

“I have the opportunity to inspect the questionable ballots only if I request a recount,” Orr wrote in an email to Benson and The Western News. “Robin Benson’s actions in the $150,000 Olsen case have destroyed my faith that she has the integrity to ensure a free and fair election. The anomaly of the over-votes cannot be explained away by someone who does not have the trust of the public.”

In the email, Orr indicated he would withdraw his challenge if Benson would agree to a public, taped debate focused on Benson’s involvement in the lawsuit between the City of Libby and Councilman Olsen. The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices has issued a sufficiency finding, ruling there is ample evidence to proceed with prosecution of Benson, Libby Mayor Doug Roll, former City Attorney James Reintsma, former council members Bill Bischoff and Vicky Lawrence and current council members Barb Desch and Peggy Williams for improper use of municipal resources to influence an election. Lincoln County Attorney Bernard Cassidy declined to prosecute the case and referred it back to the commissioner. The current status is listed as “settlement/litigation in process” by the commissioner.

“I believe it would be in everyone’s best interests to restore faith in the system,” Orr wrote. “I would give Robin a chance to explain her actions in the Olsen case, publicly, taped for YouTube, to give her a chance to justify her actions. It would be a two-hour debate between the two of us. We would discuss the public record, sworn depositions, emails between the principals, Olsen and myself included. If Robin simply takes the opportunity to publicly explain her involvement in Doug Roll’s fraudulent election, regardless of the outcome of the debate, I will save the county the cost of a recount. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, I will be submitting a request to recount the votes of the latest municipal election if Robin does not have the fortitude to debate. If she responds via email before that time and agrees to an effort to restore public trust in her integrity to hold such an important office, and agrees to a public disclosure of her actions in the Olsen case, both public and private, I will not submit the recount petition.”

Benson said she has no intention of debating Orr and supports his right to request a recount.

“No, I’m not going to debate him,” she said. “The residency issue is a legal issue involving several people. If he wants a recount, that is his right and he’s entitled to request one.”

Orr said the issue is the integrity of the elections and the public’s faith in the system and process.

“I believe free and fair elections are the cornerstone of this American experiment in ordered society. This was eloquently articulated at the founding of this country and so important it is included in the founding documents,” Orr wrote. “The ability of the governed to choose the governors, or fire them, is the most basic, essential element in the concept of ‘government deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’ In Lincoln County we have far too much history of appointments and contrived elections. Far too many of our positions of political influence are populated by people who have avoided free and fair elections by devious means. Those who have benefited from a perversion of our guiding principles cannot be trusted to correct this mess without explaining their actions.”