The possibility of a teacher strike in the West Contra Costa school district remained uncertain Wednesday after a reversal in the outcome of a contested teacher contract vote.

It was not clear Wednesday if the union would strike or return to the bargaining table. Union President Pixie Hayward Schickele could not be reached for comment. Union members, who voted overwhelmingly over the summer to allow the union to call a strike, must provide 72 hours' notice.

Teachers defeated a tentative deal that changes health benefits and working conditions in Tuesday's recount, with 705 voting no and 671 voting yes, according to the United Teachers of Richmond. That's a reversal from last week's tally, which showed members narrowly ratified the contract with 698 yes votes and 689 no votes.

To swing from a nine-vote ratification to a defeat by 35 votes — with a change in how many ballots were tallied — surprised many. Some members of the union election committee said Wednesday human error, calculator error and straying from union procedures led to mistakes. They said they are confident in the recount, because rules were followed and tallies were repeatedly checked by more than on person.

Teacher Diane Brown, who was a recount observer, said the election committee should undergo training before handling ballots. Other election reform, such as shifting to electronic online voting, is needed.

"It's not just about counting numbers,"

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Brown said.

Tuesday's recount was ordered by the union's executive board because last week's tally was so close, Hayward Schickele said.

But even before that, a number of teachers began calling for a recount or another vote, saying the process by which votes were counted last week was compromised. On Nov. 5, the election committee counted ballots from each school while five observers watched. Tallies were compiled onto one list. The committee chairwoman used a calculator to add it up and left the room.

Usually, the chair asks another committee member to check the math, and the committee certifies the results before delivering it to the president, said some committee members, observers and longtime union members. But after 10 minutes, Hayward Schickele entered the room where the committee and observers were waiting and said the contract was ratified.

Committee member Lisa Reynolds asked for vote totals, but she said Hayward Schickele declined. Reynolds said when she asked why, Hayward Schickele told her, "I don't want to."

Hayward Schickele has said ballots were correctly counted Nov. 5. She did not release vote totals that night, she added, because the union needed to verify provisional ballots, which could not be done until the next day.

Tuesday's recount was different. Committee members checked tallies multiple times at multiple stages of the process, they said. Having different people punch numbers into a calculator sometimes yielded different results, so they switched to a tape calculator to better track their work. Results were not certified, they said, until several union members punched in the same numbers and emerged with the same totals. The committee set aside unclear ballots and discussed how to handle them. They decided ballots where someone did not check yes or no but instead wrote in a third option should not be counted. Ballots where the voter checked no but crossed out language about the strike and wrote in a suggestion to return to the bargaining table should be counted as a no vote.

In the Nov. 5 count, the election chairwoman made decisions on unclear ballots on a case-by-case basis and committee members said there was inconsistency.

"We need to look at the bylaws and the standing rules and make sure they are followed to the letter," said Reynolds, who was unhappy with the Nov. 5 count but is satisfied with the recount. "We might consider adding a rule that the final tally should be done with tape (calculators) and not an electronic calculator with no record. It's a lot of numbers being crunched."

Officials at West Contra Costa Unified School District waited Wednesday to hear from the union on its next step. "We'll go back to the table," spokesman Marin Trujillo said.

If the union strikes, he said, "We will be as prepared as we can. The schools would be open. We would provide instruction, but it will not be the same quality as with our teachers."

Katherine Tam covers Richmond. Follow her at twitter.com/katherinetam.