A limited recount of the Crescent City Connection toll referendum that passed by an 18-vote margin last fall is Saturday at New Orleans City Hall. Mike Teachworth of Harvey, director of Stop the Tolls, won the review after he sued over the outcome, alleging irregularities, electioneering and other problems with the Nov. 6 election where more than 308,000 ballots were cast.

A partial recount of the Crescent City Connection toll referendum ballots in New Orleans is Saturday at New Orleans City Hall.

Judge William Morvant of the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge ordered the recount of votes in Orleans Parish, one of three parishes to vote on the 20-year extension. Orleans voters approved the extension. Voters in Jefferson Plaquemines rejected it.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit were Gov. Bobby Jindal and Secretary of State Tom Schedler, the state's chief elections officer.



The recount will be conducted by Linda Rodrigue, Terrebonne Parish's registrar of voters, at 9 a.m. before parties in the lawsuit. The review is restricted to absentee by mail and early voting ballots in Orleans Parish.

"We're not recounting anything else. We're not going to be challenging the validity of ballots,'' said attorney G. Patrick Hand III, who represents Teachworth.

If the outcome is not favorable, Hand said the case is not over. He will seek nullification of the vote based on a number of issues, including invalid ballots, voters who were denied the right to vote on the issue when they were given provisional ballots for federal elections and electioneering by a poll worker in eastern New Orleans.

Hand contends the number of voters who were not allowed to vote on the toll issue because they were given provisional ballots and those who may have been influenced by the poll worker far exceeded the 18-vote margin and "would have changed the outcome.

"If we lose the recount, it's not over,'' Hand said. "Our arguments for nullification are strong.''