Adams
By Charlotte Caldwell
SIDNEY — The Shelby County Board of Elections certified the March 19 primary election and announced Mack Knupp was the top vote-getter for the Jan. 2 Shelby County commissioner seat at a meeting on March 26.
After the board tallied the mail-in ballots, provisional ballots, and ballots from 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the November general election and accepted the ballots approved by the board of election staff, Knupp received 2,608 votes; John Adams received 2,589 votes; and Philip Barhorst received 2,464 votes.
“I am blessed with the outpouring of support and am proud to have earned the support at a young age. I am looking forward to serving the people of Shelby County,” said Knupp.
According to the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Secretary of State Directive, an automatic recount will be held for this race only since the difference in votes for Adams and Knupp is less than one-half of one percent (0.5%). The recount will occur on Thursday, April 4, at 9 a.m. at the Board of Elections office, 230 E. Court St. The recount will include two bipartisan teams who will hand count ballots from two randomly chosen precincts, and the rest of the ballots — besides Democrat and issue only ballots — will go through the ballot counting machine again.
The board reviewed 87 ballots total with special circumstances. The board of elections staff recommended the rejection of 32 ballots and the acceptance of 55 ballots. Rejected ballots included issues like the voter not being registered to vote in Ohio and someone voting in the wrong precinct and the wrong polling location.
“The automatic recount is a formality that won’t change the outcome,” Adams said in an email after the certification. “I congratulate the 27-year-old Mr. Knupp and his family and I wish him the best navigating our $100 million county budget.”
