SIDNEY — After a delay of 42 days, the unofficial results of the March 17 Primary Election have finally been totaled.
Polls officially closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, and Shelby County Board of Elections officials got busy tabulating the results. It took around 30 minutes to run the county’s 35 precincts’ ballots.
Voters in the Sidney City Schools District cast their ballots for a 7.3 mill emergency tax levy to avoid an operating deficit for the district. Voters defeated the levy by a 2,613 (55.88%) against the levy vote and 2,063 (44.12%) for the levy.
“I am very disappointed about the failure of the levy. This is a trying time for so many of us. Sidney City Schools works hard everyday to try and do what is best for our students, ” said Superintendent Bob Humble. “We continue to be good stewards of the taxpayer money and will continue to do the best we can. In the coming months, the Board of Education will need to reevaluate the personnel and programs of the district in order spend wisely, doing our best to limit the impact on students. Going forward, if we as a community want it to continue to grow and prosper, additional funding is necessary. We really can’t afford to move backwards.”
In the only contested race in the county, Jim Frye won the Republican nomination to be the next Shelby County sheriff. The unofficial results were 4,156 (63.3%) for Frye and 2,406 votes (36.7%) for Jordan.
“I want to thank everyone that supported me,” Frye said, “and I want to assure those who voted for me or didn’t vote for me that I will be their sheriff and treat everyone fairly, and we will get the jobs done that need to get done.”
Frye, the chief deputy for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, will be unopposed in the November General Election and will succeed Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart, whose stint as sheriff expires on Dec. 31.
“We will continue to do what we’ve been doing for the last many years,” Frye said. “We will continue to provide the great service that we’ve been providing to the county. John has been exceptional person to work with, and we’ll just go day by day.
“I can’t think the employees enough for the jobs that they do.”
Jordan, the CEO of Bluecrest Electronics, a sergeant with the Botkins Police Department and a deputy with the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, said he will continue serving Botkins and Champaign County and pursuing private sector projects now that his campaign for sheriff has concluded.
“I just want to say that it’s been a wonderful journey that I had to meet with a lot of folks along the way that I normally wouldn’t have got to know,” Jordan said. “Although that I’m disappointed in the outcome, I’m thankful for my family, friends and supporters. And I wish the best to my opponent and his upcoming administration.”
The election will be certified on May 11 by the board of elections.
Ohio responded to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak when Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton ordered in-person polling locations closed on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. As a result, the Ohio General Assembly extended the 2020 Ohio primary election until Tuesday, April 28, 2020, and converted to a vote-by-mail election.