Brookfield levy still winning, but automatic recount to be held

Staff report

WARREN

Brookfield schools Superintendent Tim Saxton said the apparent passage of the district’s 4.85-mill additional, continuous levy at the May 7 primary election is a “shot in the arm” for the financially troubled district.

The final count of votes, completed Tuesday morning, shows the levy passed by one vote — 930 to 929.

The Trumbull County Board of Elections certified the results at a meeting Tuesday afternoon. As a result of the one-vote difference, the issue will receive an automatic recount at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the elections board offices, said Kelly Pallante, elections board director.

At 2 p.m., elections board members will conduct a random draw of one of the nine precincts in Brookfield Township and recount the ballots from that precinct by hand. Recounts almost never result in a change in the vote totals, elections officials have said.

None of the other election results were close enough to qualify for a recount. The vote totals certified Tuesday did not change the outcome of any of the election races or issues as reported election night, Pallante said.

The Brookfield levy results changed slightly because of the seven absentee ballots and 10 provisional ballots counted in recent days.

Ohio law required them to be counted between May 18 and Tuesday.

The levy will raise $606,002 annually on a continuing basis, the first new operating money voters in Brookfield have approved in 20 years, Saxton said.

The district expects to have a $1,018,000 deficit at the end of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, and the Ohio Auditor’s Office declared the district to be in fiscal emergency in mid-May.