Board of Elections pick random precincts for recounts in Toledo, Ottawa Hills council races
11/27/2013The Lucas County Board of Elections today selected a random sample of precincts to recount in Toledo and Ottawa Hills as part of an automatic recount in two closely contested races.
Elections Director Meghan Gallagher said board employees would start the recount on Dec. 5 and have scheduled four days to make sure that a hand count of the ballots equals the machine count from Precinct 1 in Ottawa Hills and 13 sample precincts in Toledo.
In the vote count certified Monday, Toledo school board member Larry Sykes out-polled Toledo City Councilman Adam Martinez by five votes, 19,282 to 19,277, to claim the sixth of six at-large council terms to start on Jan. 2. In Ottawa Hills, Councilman Robert Reichert finished one vote ahead of Edward Shimborske, 570 votes to 569, for a seat on the village council. In both cases, the differences are less than half of 1 percent of the total number of votes and triggered the recount.
During the meeting Wednesday, board members wielded scissors to cut up 226 slips of paper for the city's precincts to be placed in a bowl with 13 selected at random. The Toledo precincts selected are 4E, 8A, 3G, 7F, 13F, 14I, 16E, 2C, 9F, 24C, 18D, 24H, and 23L.
Ms. Gallagher said that if the automatic recount turns up a mistake and it can't be explained by hand tally, then the entire council race would be recounted.
Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419--724-6058 or an Twitter @TomFTroy.