Some Highland residents and candidates are crying foul after Highland announced it will change the way votes are counted on Tuesday.

Election season here has been anything but quiet, and as the eve of voting day approaches, tensions are mounting. The latest manifestation of just how high feelings are running is concerns over potential voter fraud.

Some candidates dispatched volunteer poll watchers to keep an eye on the primary election, and planned to do the same on Election Day. But on Thursday, city staff announced that "we will be doing ballot counting a bit differently from the primary election. All ballots will be counted at City Hall."

In the past, ballots have been counted at polling locations, and the change is intended to centralize the effort, said city recorder Gina Peterson.

But council candidate Scott Smith and his supporters say it may do just the opposite. They are suspicious about why changes are being made at all, especially this late in the game.

"This new system, differentfrom what has been done in Highland recently, appears to be designed to prevent our poll watchers from verifying each and everystep of the counting process," Smith told the Herald. "...While I am not suggesting voter fraud, I am concerned that the changes complicate any outside efforts to have effective counting poll watchers. They can't leave the rooms where they are assigned, but the ballots are traveling all over the city without any independent verification as allowed in the statutes. In a hotly contested election where those in power may be involved in questionable activities, it is very important to have all vote-counting procedures appear completely open and transparent."

Moving ballots to City Hall will require ballot boxes, sealed and serial coded, to be out of the sight of poll watchers during the transfer, Smith said. In a normal year, this might be a minor consideration, but nothing is minor this year.

"I'm really uncomfortable about moving them," Smith said. "It makes it difficult for the candidates to have poll watchers."

In a nod to the political climate here, Highland is being exceptionally liberal with its policies regarding poll watchers. They will even be allowed to be in the same room with ballot counters so they can keep their own tally as totals are called out, which is not required by state law, Peterson said.

As for allowing poll watchers to ride in the police cars that will transport ballots from polling places to City Hall, "logistically there is no way for poll watchers to ride in the police car with the two counting workers. At some point, we have to rely on the integrity of poll workers and police officers. They will be under oath," she said, noting she is not sure she wants a parade of watchers trying to follow police, either, something that could be possible because every candidate is allowed by law to have their own watchers.

Scott Hogensen, chief deputy clerk/auditor for the county, told the Herald he believes the consolidated counting method Highland will use will be better than the previous method because it allows all ballots to be counted by the same people. There is natural resistance to change, he said, but Highland's new method is both legal and logical, as far as the county is concerned.

"I personally feel that weneed to be allowed to at leasthave an official poll watcherfollowing thepolice car so that they can verify at City Hall that the box that leaves the polling place is the same, sealedbox that enters the room for counting," Smith told city officials in an e-mail exchange. "I would ask you to do everything possible to avoid any possible chance of vote tampering. This will help prevent rumors regardless of the outcome of the election, and especially if the election is very close."