Recount, no change: Zika wins GOP nod by two votes

(Update: Two-vote victory margin remains after hand recount)

It was official, and now it’s really official: After a hand recount Thursday that didn’t change a thing, Jack Zika has won the Oregon House District 53 Republican nomination by just two votes over Ben Schimmoller.

The Deschutes County Clerk’s Office said it conducted the hand recount Thursday and determined that Zika had 3,771 votes and Schimmoller got 3,769 votes.

State law requires automatic recounts when the number of votes between candidates is less than one half of the one percent of the total votes cast for both candidates.

During Thursday’s recount, election workers physically recounted all of the ballots cast in the race to determine the final outcome.

The Deschutes County Clerk’s Office will submit the recount results to Oregon State Elections Division. As the filing officer, State Elections will certify the results of the election by June 14.

On election night, the race in House District 53, which is much of Deschutes County surrounding Bend, was too close to call, at a margin of 11 votes. The final, certified results on Monday were even closer, at just two votes apart, out of more than 7,400 cast.

Monday’s certified election results includes any ballots dropped off in other counties and a tally of the write-in votes, 30 in this race.

The automatic recount, which cost several hundred dollars is paid for by the state, as state rules dictate.

“The good thing about it — it gives me more ammunition for the point that every vote does count,” Blankenship said Monday.

Schimmoller said earlier in the week he was keeping a positive attitude and embracing the entire rare situation. Both men said they would support the winner in the fall primary.

“It is a positive experience, at least for me. It was the first time running, we were outspent 2-to-1 and kind of the young underdogs, and we’ve closed closed the gap,” Schimmoller said. “Initially, when I went to bed on election night, we were down roughly almost 400 — votes and now it’s a two vote margin. So if nothing else its a close race.”

Zika said this has been something he can grow from.

“Everyday has been a learning process,” Zika said. “You kind of realize what a campaign entails and what an election is like, how to get your message out, what an opponent says about you and how that effects the voters. So if I had to do it over again, there would definitely be things that would change.”

The county clerk said it’s one of the closest local races in recent years. Back in November 2010, Scott Ramsay eked out a three-vote win over Chuck Arnold for a Bend City Council seat. That recount gave Ramsay one more ballot than the initial two-vote winning margin.

Zika now advances to a fall contest against Democratic nominee Eileen Kiely of Sunriver to succeed retiring state Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver.

Republicans have a registration edge in the district of roughly 7 percentage points, but nearly one-third of the district’s voters are non-affiliated, a potential swing vote.