Recounts are set for 3 close races

By David Skolnick

The recount should take about four hours to complete.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Board of Elections will recount votes in three close races, including one in which an incumbent holds a single-vote lead, on Dec. 1.

The recounts will finalize the results of three races from the Nov. 3 election.

Board employees will start the recount at 8 a.m Dec. 1, and it should take about four hours to complete, said Thomas McCabe, elections director.

All absentee and provisional ballots must be counted by hand, he said.

Also, whole precincts whose vote totals equal at least 5 percent of ballots cast on Election Day on electronic, touch-screen machines must be counted by hand using the machines’ paper count, McCabe said.

If the hand count and the machine count aren’t exact, elections boards must hand-count every vote in that race.

“There’s never been a discrepancy between the” machine count and the hand count in previous recounts, McCabe said.

By state law, if a candidate wins a race by 0.5 percent or less, there is an automatic recount.

Three races are subject to the automatic recount.

They are:

ULowellville school board with incumbent John A. Wilaj ahead of Lori Carlson 528 to 527.

UBoardman school board with John Landers leading incumbent Niklaus Amstutz 5,598 to 5,576.

UCampbell City Board of Education with Diana Petruska ahead of Crystal Elash 1,281 to 1,274.

The board of elections met Monday to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election and schedule the recount date.

skolnick@vindy.com