Election results get stamp of approval

The results of last week’s primary election have been verified and confirmed by the county canvassing board, according to County Clerk Melissa Jones. No recounts were necessary and no issues emerged during the process.

“We had no automatic recounts and we had no provisional ballots that we had to go through,” says Jones. “Everything went smoothly for us.”

It wasn’t that the primary didn’t have some very close races – the two candidates for Pine Haven’s mayor, for example, received exactly the same number of votes at 113 each.

However, for nonpartisan seats, two names will move forward to the general election, so there was no need to determine a winner between the two. For partisan seats, none were close enough to trigger an automatic recount.

“There were a couple precinct people that were close – one of them had 25 and one had 27 – but the difference between the two of them has to be less than 1% of the total votes for the winner,” Jones says.

In Jones’ example, 1% of 27 is 0.28 votes, but the difference was two votes. Another example, she says, was the race for county commissioner, in which there was a difference of 49 votes between two candidates; however, 1% of the winner’s votes was around 13.09.

“So that still wasn’t an automatic recount,” she says. “We figured a few of them, and none of them needed an automatic recount.”

All in all, it was a relatively easy morning for the canvassing board.

“We did our post-election audit and everything went great with that, so the canvas board didn’t have anything that they had to change,” Jones says.

Write-ins were received for several municipal seats in Moorcroft and Pine Haven for which fewer candidates ran during the primary than can appear on the general election ballot.

These potential candidates have been notified of their eligibility and will need to accept the nomination in order to appear on the ballot during the general election.

“The write-ins have the opportunity, if they want, to go to city hall and pay the fee and be on the ballot,” says Jones. “They get five days from the date that they receive the certified letter.”

However, while there would also have been room on the ballot for Sundance council to include one write-in candidate, no eligible names emerged from the primary.

“In order for a write-in to have eligibility, they have to receive at least three votes at the primary, and we didn’t have any write-ins that received at least three,” she says.

“There were only four write-ins and there wasn’t one person who got three votes. Sundance’s ballot won’t change.”

The number of write-ins a candidate needs are different at each level; for state, federal and county, for example, 25 write-in votes are needed. For, precinct-people only one write-in vote is needed.

Several were received during the primary, and will be handed over to the local parties to appoint.

“I give the party chairs a list of the write-ins,” she says. “The party chairs then do that through their process.”

Moving on to the general election, voters will have the opportunity to consider who they would like to serve on the various boards and special districts around the county, including medical services and school. Those interested in running for a seat on one of these boards should be aware that the filing deadline is Monday, August 29 at 5 p.m.