Jefferson County election officials recount about 23,000 ballots in response to a challenge filed following the April 5th special election that saw Republican Bill Alter of High Ridge winning over three other candidates. Jeannie Goff, the County’s Chief Deputy Elections Clerk, says the recount was triggered following a request from Democratic State Representative Rick Johnson of High Ridge, who lost by 68 votes. At issue are 191 so-called under-votes – ballots in which voters did not choose preferences in all the races being contested. Each of the 191 ballots showed no vote cast in the Senate race.