WAPAKONETA — The Auglaize County Board of Elections met Tuesday morning to perform a recount for a New Bremen Board of Education seat.
When an election is as close as 0.5 percent it triggers a recount, said Michelle Wilcox, director of the Auglaize County Board of Elections.
The board limited its recount to the New Bremen West precinct.
The recount for New Bremen West precinct matched the election day totals perfectly, Wilcox said.
The Mercer County Board of Elections had been doing a recount for the New Bremen Board of Education seat at the same time and its numbers matched election night as well.
The Auglaize and Mercer counties numbers show Suzanna Wells has 673 Auglaize County votes and 18 Mercer County votes, while Steve Vonderharr has 656 Auglaize County votes and 14 Mercer County votes. The official winner will not be announced until after Shelby County holds its recount Friday, Wilcox said.
After counting the handful of absentee ballots and the single provisional ballot, which had no choices marked for the New Bremen Board of Education race, Wilcox and Peggy Matheny, Auglaize County Board of Elections deputy director, began setting up ballot counting machines.
“Everything is tested over and over,” Wilcox said. “When you run the reports you want to be sure they’re correct.”
The results from the machines were checked against the hand tally totals and found to be an exact match.
