The Mirror Newspapers Reflecting Life Along The Maumee River
Recounted and accurate.
The Lucas County Board of Elections recounted and certified the results for Anthony Wayne Board of Education, Maumee and Sylvania city councils and Swanton Local Schools levies.
The AW race was the closest race, with incumbent Troy Lutz and Andrew Prine each securing a total of 2,109 votes when including ballots from Wood County. During a November 19 certifying meeting the board held a coin flip to break the tie, and Prine was the winner. He will join top vote-getter, Kyle Miller, on the board in January.
“The law states we must break the tie at the meeting to have a recount,” said Lucas County Board of Elections Director LaVera Scott. The Ohio Secretary of State mandated a recount for all three counties where Anthony Wayne Schools has registered voters. Wood County also certified that its votes were unchanged.
Since 2004, Scott has only experienced three coin flips.
“When people say, ‘Does my vote count?’ I tell them yes it does,” Scott said, referring to such close races.
In a recount, the board of directors randomly select the names of polling locations from slips of paper in an envelope. These indicate which polling locations will have their votes recounted. State law mandates that five percent of the votes cast in that race be recounted – not all of them. In the case of Anthony Wayne Local Schools, that was 675 votes.
The process involves one person counting aloud, a scribe and two observers as well as two others who check paper ballots, said deputy director Tim Monaco.
The board also held a recount sample of ballots cast at Gateway Middle School for Maumee City Council members Tracey Elmore and Margo Puffenberger, who were just 11 votes apart. The results remained the same, with Puffenberger winning with 1,468 and Elmore falling short of the fourth seat on council with 1,457.
Results for Sylvania and Swanton races also remained unchanged.
“That’s what we want to see,” said elections board member Kurt Young.
