Local News

Sheriff’s race still too close to call, will go to recount

The Washington County Board of Elections certified the March 19 primary election results, and the Washington County Republican primary race for sheriff took a step forward Tuesday night.

The board of elections, made up of four bipartisan members, met Tuesday to review and approve or reject provisional, absentee and other ballots at the Washington County Emergency Operations Center at 204 Davis Ave., Marietta.

The board discussed and then approved or denied 92 provisional ballots, 14 absentee ballots and five auxiliary ballots.

Washington County Board of Elections Director Mandy Amos previously explained that provisional ballots are ballots that were not processed on election night due to things like a voter not updating their name or address, a voter not having the required form of ID when going to vote or a voter being registered in one county and moving to Washington County and not updating their voter registration information.

She also said that absentee ballots are ballots that voters request in the mail and then return to the board of elections. The board of elections had to wait to count some absentee ballots because as long as they were postmarked by March 18, voters had until March 23 for their ballots to be received to be counted.

The board of elections also had to review absentee ballots at the meeting that had issues with the information voters entered onto an identification envelope they are required to return with their absentee ballot. Amos explained at the meeting that auxiliary ballots are ballots that are set aside in an auxiliary bin. This is done for reasons such as a ballot being missed and it not being scanned on election night even though the voter was checked in properly at their polling location.

She also said that one of the auxiliary ballots was set aside because the voter did not make any selections and those types of ballots produce an error message if run through the voting machine. However, the board of elections is still required to scan it.

The board members unanimously approved 70 provisional ballots, 10 absentee ballots and all five auxiliary ballots. It rejected 22 provisional ballots and four absentee ballots.

The board went into recess to have the approved ballots scanned and counted.

Once they returned they provided a paper copy of the election results to the board members and to Washington County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Mark Warden and former Washington County Jail Administrator Greg Nohe, who attended the meeting and ran for sheriff in the Republican primary on March 19.

The board certified the election results unanimously and shared out loud the results for the Republican sheriff's primary race.

On election night, 10,879 votes were cast for the Republican sheriff's primary, with Warden receiving 5,450 votes or 50.10% of the votes and Nohe receiving 5,429 votes or 49.90% of the vote. That is a difference of 21 votes.

As of the canvass and the official certification of the votes, 10,957 votes were cast for the race and it is still too close to call.

Warden received 5,489 votes or 50.10% of the vote and Nohe received 5,468 votes or 49.9% of the vote. They each gained 39 votes from the provisional, absentee and auxiliary ballots that were approved and counted. That is still a difference of 21 votes.

Washington County Board of Elections Member Dennis Sipe said that the number of votes difference between the sheriff's candidates would have to be 55 votes or less for an automatic recount to be triggered.

"It's an automatic recount pursuant to statute," Sipe said of the 21-vote difference.

Sipe ended the meeting stating that while the Ohio Revised Code requires that at least 5% of the ballots in a race that is having an automatic recount be recounted, there will be a recount of 100% of the votes for the Republican primary sheriff's race.

When asked how he felt about the recount, Nohe said, "It is what it is."

Warden said he is looking forward to the recount.

"It is something that needs to be done," he said. "It needs to be a 100% recount."

The Board of Elections set the date of the recount as April 10 at 8:30 a.m.

There is one other race that was too close to call on March 19, the race for the member of the county central Democratic committee for Waterford A precinct. On primary election night, Elizabeth Klintworth received 18 votes or 46.15% of the vote and John Stephan received 15 votes or 38.46% of the vote, with the other candidate Norman Pritchard trailing behind in third with 6 votes or 15.38% of the vote. After the official canvas, all the votes remained the same.

Sipe did not say whether there would be an automatic recount for the Klintworth/Stephan race; instead he said that the board would be checking to see if there were any other races that have to have an automatic recount.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com