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The Regional Transportation Authority wants to conduct its own unofficial recount of the ballots from the 2006 election, and wants a judge to require the county to keep the ballots until that happens.

To do that, the RTA board told its lawyer on Tuesday to submit a public-records request to the county for copies of the ballots, and to ask a Pima County Superior Court Judge not to destroy the ballots.

The move comes in response to a lawsuit Pima County Treasurer Beth Ford filed last week to ask a judge for a court order to either keep the ballots or destroy them.

She wants an order in either situation because state law allows her to keep the ballots for only six months. However, because they were potential evidence in two public-records court cases, the ballots have been preserved.

The authority wants the ballots kept until allegations of tampering during the election are resolved.

Several elections-integrity advocates have raised concerns about the electronic records from the election, including allegations the votes were recorded incorrectly.

In May 2006, voters approved a $2 billion transportation plan and a sales tax to pay for the work.

The board voted 6-1 to ask answer Ford's suit with a request to keep the ballots and to request either the ballots or copies to verify the election results.

Board members Lynne Skelton, mayor of Sahuarita, and Peter Yucupicio, chair of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, were absent.

Board member Si Schorr voted against the motion because state law doesn't allow for an unofficial recount of ballots from past elections, he said.

He supports keeping the ballots, but said it is not the RTA's job to verify an election.

"There is no provision in the law for an unofficial recount," said Schorr, chairman of the state Transportation Board.

Recounting the ballots is a way to restore the public's trust in the election, said Pima County Supervisor Ramón Valadez, a board member.

"We need to address it well, clear, and publicly," Valadez said.

Schorr countered that the time period for a recount expired "many, many months ago."

"But we must try," said Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup, also a board member.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who has also opposed destruction of the ballots, said he's not sure whether the county will be able to fulfill a public-records request for the ballots.

The RTA's executive director, Gary Hayes, also isn't sure whether the ballots will be released.

"A judge will make that decision," Hayes said after the meeting.

The board needed to respond to the allegations and the lawsuit and encourage an unofficial recount of the ballots to restore public trust in the transportation authority, Hayes said.

"We are absolutely confident if a recount were conducted it would mirror polling conducted" before the election, Hayes said.

The polling has also been called into question by attorney Bill Risner, who has said polling by proponents of the transportation plan and sales tax showed the initiatives failing shortly before the election.

But Marketing Intelligence polling, conducted on behalf of the transportation plan proponents the week of the election, predicted the tax would pass with 57 percent to 66 percent approval of the voters. The plan was approved by 60 percent, and the tax was supported by 58 percent.