Countdown to vote certification begins
Two members of the Fayette County Election Board signed off on the November election results Tuesday morning, starting the clock on a five-day period to challenge the results.
Election bureau director Larry Blosser said that board members Mark Mehalov and Barbara Balling Carl did the first signing of the results. If, by Monday morning, no objections, challenges or requests for recount are filed, the board will sign off on the results a second time, making them official, Blosser said.
The challenge period between the first and second signing of the results is five calendar days, Blosser said, but because the fifth day falls on a weekend, the fifth day will be considered Monday around 10:30 a.m., Blosser said.
Mehalov was the first board member to sign off and did so around 9 a.m. Balling Carl was the second and signed off around 10:30 a.m., Blosser said.
The clock started running on challenge time after Balling Carl signed off. Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites is the third member of the board.
The first signing was delayed when David Lohr, a Republican candidate for commissioner, challenged the board’s ruling to not count several absentee ballots that were not received at the bureau by Nov. 4, their due date.
At the point that challenge was made, Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink, the other Republican on the ballot, was ahead by 12 votes.
As Judge Ralph C. Warman contemplated ruling on whether 18 absentee ballots should be opened and counted, the board opened several other provisional ballots and valid absentee ballots, widening Zimmerlink’s lead by 18 votes.
On Monday, Warman ruled that the absentee ballots that Lohr challenged would not be counted. The tally of votes in that tight race is 8,864 votes for Zimmerlink to 8,846 votes for Lohr.