Optical scanning system slows count

OGDEN — Slow vote-counting hampered returns in the Ogden City Council elections Tuesday night.

As of 11 p.m., no results had been posted in the three contested city council races.

There was no suspense in the At-Large Seat B race. Bart Blair, 36, was unopposed after his opponent, David Phipps, was disqualified last week because he failed to file a campaign finance disclosure statement on time.

Blair helps run the family’s Chevron service station and is a lifelong resident of Ogden.

The use of an optical scanning voting system slowed the counting of ballots, election officials said.

The counting was handled by Weber County’s election staff, said Alan D. McEwan, the county’s clerk auditor. The city chose to use the optical scanning system over the more expensive and faster electronic voting system, McEwan said.

The city vote is perhaps the largest ever counted by the county using the optical system, McEwan said.

The system requires voters to fill out ballots by hand, which are then fed into a device that reads them optically. If the ballot isn’t filled out correctly, it canbe misread by the device and then has to be determined valid by an election judge, he said.

In the contested council races, incumbent Jessie M. Garcia, 56, faced challenger Neil K. Garner, 48, in seeking a fifth term as the council’s Municipal Ward 1 representative.

Former Councilwoman Susie Van Hooser faced Mark B. Hains in the race for the council’s At-Large Seat A.

Van Hooser held the At-Large Seat A post from 2006 to 2007 before stepping down for an unsuccessful bid to become Ogden’s mayor, losing to incumbent Matthew Godfrey two years ago.

In the Municipal Ward 3 race, incumbent Doug Stephens faced challenger Patrick Dean.

Stephens, 63, a retired employee with Macy’s Inc., has served on the council for four years.

Stephens enjoyed a dinner of tacos with his family while watching for results on television. He said he wasn’t nervous, but felt quite confident he would be satisfied with the results.

Dean, 51, is facilities director at Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College and a lifelong resident of Ogden.

Dean said Tuesday night he was out picking up his campaign signs.

“Whether I win or lose, it’s back to work (today); if I lose, it’s 9 (a.m.) to 5 (p.m.); if I win, it’s 9 (a.m.) to 10 (p.m.).”