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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

House Seeks Probe Of Teamsters Vote

From Staff And Wire Reports

House Judiciary Committee leaders asked Attorney General Janet Reno on Friday to look into allegations of irregularities in the federally monitored vote for the presidency of the Teamsters union.

The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Rep. John Conyers, of Michigan, the panel’s ranking Democrat, asked Reno to respond to allegations made by challenger James P. Hoffa.

Teamsters President Ron Carey declared victory Dec. 14, but the election’s federal overseer must finish counting challenged ballots before the results of the mail-in election can be certified.

Hoffa alleges there is a discrepancy between the number of ballots returned and the number of votes counted. The election officer, Barbara Zack Quindel, says the post office overestimated the number of returns.

Postal officials have maintained that the more than 485,000 ballots were counted by hand, but postal employees say it wouldn’t be unusual for such a large return mailing to be tallied according to an estimate by weight.