Tim James' search for at least 167 more votes starts today as Republican Party officials begin recounting almost a half-million ballots cast in the GOP race for governor.
Hanging on the outcome is who actually finished second in the June 1 vote for the Republican Party nomination for governor -- James or Robert Bentley.
Most of the state's 67 counties plan to recount ballots today, including Jefferson and Mobile, the state's two most populous counties. Several counties will recount ballots Wednesday, including Shelby, Madison and Calhoun.
Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King said he hoped to begin the process as early as 6 a.m. and expects it to take eight to 12 hours to count the 61,000 ballots cast in the GOP primary for governor.
King put the cost of the recount at just more than $16,000, all of it -- as well as the cost in the other 66 counties -- to be paid by James.
Across the state, only the Republican vote for governor will be recounted, and that process requires handfeeding each ballot into a voting machine.
Vote totals reported June 1 and provisional ballots counted last week show Bentley ahead of James by just 167 votes. Bradley Byrne finished well ahead of the pack, but no candidate received a majority. That means Byrne and Bentley will meet July 13 in a runoff -- even if the recount results in James moving ahead of Bentley in the vote total.
That's because Attorney General Troy King, in a controversial opinion issued last week, said James cannot challenge the June 1 vote results until the GOP has a nominee for governor, and that nominee will not be selected until the July 13 runoff.
At that point, James could contest the primary vote to the Republican Party senior state leadership. If the party found for James, then it would have to set a second runoff -- this one between James and the winner of the Byrne-Bentley July 13 showdown.
'Potential mess'
That scenario is keeping Republican Party state Chairman Mike Hubbard from getting a good night's sleep.
"It's a potential mess," said Hubbard. "All we can do at this point is follow what the attorney general says is the law and the recommendations of the secretary of state and then see what we see. If the recount shows Bentley still in the lead, then I guess this is all over. If the recount shows James pulling ahead, then all I can say is, hold on."
Bentley's campaign manager, Bryan Sanders, criticized the recount but stopped short of saying Bentley planned any legal action to stop it.
"It is totally absurd to presume that a recount administered by untrained volunteer s would make the recount any more accurate than the original count administered by qualified election professionals sworn to uphold the Constitution of Alabama and of the United States," Sanders wrote in an e-mail.
Sanders pointed out that, while probate judges and their trained staffs normally are charged with counting votes, today's recount is the responsibility of volunteers under the supervision of GOP chairmen in each county.
Lawyers for Bentley wrote Hubbard and in the letter cited the same state laws King did in his opinion to stress their view that there are no state laws allowing for a recount of a primary election. The lawyers also stressed, as did King, that any challenge by James cannot progress until the GOP has a nominee.
But the lawyers also warned that any recount before the July 13 runoff could violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires Alabama and other southern states to seek approval by the U.S. attorney general before any changes to voting practices are made.
Still, Sanders indicated Bentley will not seek to stop the recount.
"The attorney general said the party has the authority to move forward with a recount and we will follow the AG's opinion, but we emphatically disagree with the James campaign's position that an election contest can occur prior to the runoff because there is no nominee," Sanders said.
E-MAIL: