Pitkin proposes a system of counting PR votes in which the order of the ballots would not not affect the result.

Such a system would bypass the longest part of the recount process, but would violate the state law governing elections.

Drugan argues that the current law is important to preserving voter anonymity.

“Numbering of the ballot itself would make it easier to do, but would violate the secrecy of the ballot,” Drugan said.

The Election Commission chose the computerized system in order to decrease the time for the initial count, which often took several days prior to the institution of the computerized system.

“Recounting is much more difficult [under the computerized system], but the first count is a breeze,” Drugan said.

Three new ballots have been recovered in the recount process, but only one was determined to contain a vote for a candidate.

Today, the process of stamping each of the ballots will begin, after which the auditor of the recount will examine the process, which could be another time-consuming step in the process.

“The auditor has to be satisfied that it’s acceptable, precinct by precinct,” Drugan said. “He will take some time doing that.”

Drugan believes that once the auditor is satisfied with the recount, there will be no more steps in the election process,

“I don’t expect to have any problems from the candidates, since they’ve been watching the process all along,” Drugan said.