Marian Clennon, who lost by 1,699 votes to Mayor Tom Stiehm in the Austin mayoral race, has requested a recount of at least three voting precincts, which she will pay out of pocket.

Clennon requested the recount around noon on Tuesday, saying she “wants to make sure the ballots are counted the way the people intended them to be counted.”

Initially, the recount will only cover three precincts: Ward 1 Precinct 2, Ward 2 Precinct 2 and Ward 3 Precinct 1. Once these three precincts have been recounted by hand, Clennon can decide whether to proceed with the remaining four precincts — one of which is compiled of only absentee votes.

Clennon chose the precincts after looking at voter data from past elections.

“I’m a number cruncher person, so I like to see what’s happened (in the past),” she said. “But I can’t speculate what the outcome is going to be.”

Although Clennon did not say specifically whether she trusts the ballot counting machines, she said she wants to see the ballots hand counted, which is part of her motivation for requesting the recount.

“When you get machines in between voters and election judges, you just don’t know,” she said.

Lucy Johnson, city clerk, said she is confused as to why Clennon would question the machines, though. Clennon attended both accuracy tests — one before the primary and one before the general election — in which the counting machines had 100 percent accuracy.

“She was the only candidate who came to both tests,” Johnson said.

Clennon said she still can’t be sure of the accuracy of the machines, even after witnessing the tests.

“Not all the machines were in the room, and I didn’t go through each and every ballot. I went by the numbers that were given,” Clennon said. “Machines are not infallible. When we were testing there was a glitch where it … didn’t read something correctly. I watched it say that something wasn’t right.”

When Johnson first heard late last week that Clennon was considering requesting a recount, she encouraged Clennon to reconsider. Clennon said Johnson told her it could ruin her political career in Austin.