SAN DIEGO -- Barbara Gail Jacobson said Monday she knew she would have to pay for the recount she requested of the June 6 ballots in the 50th Congressional District election.

What she didn't know was that the bill would run between $120,000 to $150,000.

Election officials say that's what a hand count of the ballots and other information she has requested costs. Jacobson, who challenged the results of the election claiming the potential for fraud, said the fees were exorbitant.

"Charging such a high fee obstructs the public from ensuring the elections we participated in were properly administered," Jacobson said in Monday phone interview.

In a July 7 letter to Jacobson, Registrar Mikel Haas wrote: "Based on prior experience, a rough estimate for a complete recount of this contest, including examination of pertinent materials, is between $120,000 and $150,000.

"Right now, concerned voters we're working with are looking at the information and preparing a response," Jacobson said.

In an earlier interview, the San Diego resident said she is a registered Democrat. She said the issue is not a partisan one -- it's about protecting the democratic process.

In his letter to Jacobson, Haas also said that she had until 3 p.m. today to make a $6,000 deposit towards the cost of conducting the recount.

When voters went to the polls or cast absentee ballots to pick a temporary replacement to fill the 50th District seat, which has been vacant since late last year, 158,033 people voted. Based on the costs provided to Jacobson by Haas, that would mean that the cost per ballot on a recount would be about 76 cents if Jacobson had to pay $120,000 and about 95 cents if she had to pay $150,000.

That is substantially higher than what the Orange County registrar of voters charged for an April recount in the 35th state Senate District primary election. In that contest, a resident requested a hand recount of all 98,344 ballots cast. The registrar of voters conducted the operation, using several four-person teams, and the bill came to $14,000, or about 14 cents a ballot, said Brett Rowley, communications director for the Orange County registrar of voters.

Neither Haas nor assistant Registrar Tim McNamara could be reached for comment Monday.

In an earlier interview, however, Registrar of Voters spokesman Mike Workman said that although the registrar's office charged $2,000 to $3,000 per day for its work in the recount of the votes in July's San Diego mayoral race, the cost to Jacobson for the 50th recount could be higher. He said that was because she was asking for additional information on things like absentee ballots.

Jacobson submitted a laundry list of requests to the registrar's office, including: all precinct rosters and voter index lists; all accepted provisional ballot envelopes; all log-ins, e-mails, notes or other documentation of any complaints or requests for assistance; all accepted absentee ballot envelopes and corresponding application forms; and all documentation of the registrar's policies.

In the 50th District special election runoff, Republican Brian Bilbray beat Democratic opponent Francine Busby by more than 5 percentage points. The contest was held to pick a temporary replacement through year's end for the now-imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty in federal court in late November to taking more than $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering tens of millions in government business to two defense contractors.

On June 13, Bilbray took the oath of office and immediately began the new job.

In an earlier interview, Jacobson said that one of the main reasons she had requested the hand recount was that Haas had allowed precinct workers to take voting machines to their homes in the days leading up to the election. Haas had said that such a practice was not unusual, and that registrars across the state frequently let precinct captains to take the machines home before an election so they will be able to have the machines at polling places early on election day.

Officials with the Secretary of State's office have said there is no law prohibiting such a practice.

Jacobson had said she also requested the recount because of concerns that she and other election observers have with the use of electronic voting machines, which some say are vulnerable to hacking and voter fraud.

In her request for a recount, Jacobson also asked the registrar to allow her to examine all of the absentee ballots and their envelopes, "especially since 10,000 suddenly came in the days before the election," Jacobson said Monday.

- Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or wbennett@nctimes.com.