By Melanie Speicher

[email protected]

SIDNEY — One race had a clear winner, while the other race is too close to call for the two Shelby County commissioner seats.

Just nine votes separate Republicans Mack Knupp and John Adams for the Jan. 2 seat. Republican Bruce Metz was the top candidate for the Jan. 3 seat in Tuesday’s Primary Election ballot.

Unofficially, Knupp is the top vote-getter for the Jan. 2 seat with 2,592 votes. However, John Adams was just behind him with 2,583 votes. Philip Barhorst received 2,445 votes for the seat.

Both Knupp and Adams are waiting for the certification to see who won the race.

“I’m sitting on pins and needles,” said Knupp. “I’m just hoping for the best.”

When asked how he felt about the election results, Adams said, “I don’t have a clue.”

Knupp said he was surprised at how close the race was.

“I knew it was going to be close,” said Knupp. “But I didn’t know it was going to be that close. With three people running for commissioner, you never know what to expect.”

Adams said with all the factions in the county, and with three people running for the seat, he also thought it would be a close race.

“But I didn’t expect it to be a nine vote difference,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait for all the votes to be counted. Maybe it will be a tie and a toss of the coin will determine the winner.”

Knupp said he plans to keep attending the commissioner meetings until the results are certified.

When contacted Wednesday, Adams was out and about collecting his campaign signs from supporter’s yards.

“I’ve been through this before,” said Adams. “We’ll just have to wait until the board of elections does all they can do.”

Provisional ballots, along with mailed-in ballots with a postmark meeting the election deadline, have yet to be counted. If the final results have a .5% difference between the top vote getters, an automatic recount of the election will be held.

Metz, of Jackson Center, received the most votes for the Jan. 3 seat with 4,475 votes and James Goettemoeller, of Botkins, received 2,698 votes.

The winners of both races will be unopposed in November as no Democrat was on the ballot in the primary.

Either Adams or Knupp will replace Tony Bornhorst, while Metz will take over the seat held by Bob Guillozet. Both will retire when their terms end in January 2025.

“I’m very relieved it’s over,” said Metz Wednesday afternoon. “I’m honored to be elected and that the people have the confidence in me to serve for four years as commissioner.

“I’m looking forward to taking office. I’m very happy,” he said.

Metz said he was surprised by the amount of votes he received versus what Goettemoeller received.

“I just didn’t know how it would go,” said Metz. “Judge (Duane) Goettemoeller, who retired, is his brother, and I was concerned people would think they were voting for him. So it was up in the air.

“I really didn’t expect the other race to be as close as it was,” said Metz of the nine vote difference between Knupp and Adams.

Metz will retire as the Jackson Center village administrator on Sept. 30. And since he’ll be unopposed in the November election — unless there’s a write-in candidate — he’s going to spend his summer participating in the festival parades in the villages and visiting the villages to get to know the residents better before he takes office in January.

“That was a big load off my shoulders,” he said of Tuesday’s election.

The Shelby County Board of Elections will certify the results of the election on Tuesday, March 26, at 9 a.m. at the board of elections office.