While the numbers have changed, the results have not.
The Union County Board of Elections Tuesday released the final, official results of this year’s primary election. Preliminary results were released April 28, the final day of voting. Officials however said there were more than 1,100 potential votes to be counted coming from provisional ballots and mail-in ballots that could have been post marked on time, but received after the election.
Brandon Clay, director of the Union County Board of Elections said the office counted 282 votes after election day.
Nearly all of the elections, with the exception of the Republican primary for juvenile probate judge, was effectively over after the first round of absentee ballots were counted.
After all the votes were counted, Assistant Union County Prosecutor Rick Rodger took the election by less than 1%, though the margin was not close enough to trigger an automatic recount.
Rodger earned 3,151 votes to beat Magistrate Sharon K. Robinson Walls, who received 3,092 votes. No Democrat has filed for the position. Judge Charlotte Coleman Eufinger is not seeking another term.
The other race that received significant attention was the contest to fill County Commissioner Steve Stolte’s soon-to-be-empty county commissioner seats.
Republican Steve Robinson, with 2,127 votes, topped J.R. Rausch with 1,803 votes, Kim Zacharias with 1,508 votes, Jerry McClary with 549 votes and Andrew C. Smarra Jr. with 435 votes.
Rausch won nearly all the precincts in Marysville as well as those in the southeast corner of the county. Robinson, however, took many of the precincts in the northern part of the county by a wide margin. Zacharias showed strong in the Milford Center, Millcreek and Marysville precincts.
Robinson will face Democrat Tony Eufinger, who was unopposed and garnered 2,586 votes.
Republican Dave Burke will fill the seat of retiring County Commissioner Charles Hall. Burke, with 4,083 votes, defeated Rod Goddard, with 2,262 votes, in the contest. No Democrat has filed to fill the position.
Stolte and Hall have separate seats. Stolte’s seat takes office Jan. 2. Hall’s replacement will take office Jan. 3.
Aside from the winners, election officials said the big takeaway from the election is that, “we can do it.”
“This election was unprecedented and we went with the punches,” said Tina LaRoche, assistant director of the Union County Board of Elections. “We just do what we need to do.”
Legal wrangling and health department directives in the day and hours before the state’s scheduled March 17 primary election closed the polls and set June 2 as the day for in-person voting in Ohio. Weeks later, the Ohio General Assembly eliminated in-person voting for this election and set April 28 as the final day of Ohio’s primary election.
Officials said it is too early to know what they or voters should expect in November. Clay said officials and voters are “at the mercy of the legislature for that.”
“Without knowing what to expect or where we are going to be with the pandemic, it is difficult to even know what to plan for,” LaRoche said.
Clay said the only plan is “to be flexible.”
“If we run a normal election, we will be prepared for that,” Clay said. “If they tell us we need to do a mail election, we will be ready for that as well. We are trying to prepare for everything.”
Local election officials said the Secretary of State is expected to send each voter a card, notifying them of how they can request a ballot and vote by mail. Clay said having the state publish information to help voters understand the changing process would “be a big load off our backs.”
Regardless of what the state rules or does to inform voters, local officials said they will do their best to use the newspaper, their website and other venues to keep voters informed.
The general election will be held Nov. 3, 2020.
Anyone who is eligible to vote, but has not yet registered, has until Oct. 5 to register for the Nov. 3, 2020, General Election.
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In total, Union County voters cast 10,141 ballots, representing 26% of the 38,903 registered voters.
Of those that cast ballots, 6,809 voted as Republicans, 3,103 voted as Democrats and 29 voted as Libertarians. Additionally, 200 questions and issues ballots were cast.
In the race for Clerk of Courts, Republican Danielle Sullivan, with 3,269 votes, topped Kellie M. Carson, with 2,497 votes. The primary winner will face unopposed democrat Leighann Merriman Moots who earned 2,458 votes. Current clerk of courts Teresa L. Nickle is not seeking reelection.
In the race to replace current Recorder Teresa Markham, who is not running for the position again, Karen J. Riffle, with 2,378 votes, topped Beth Robinson Marshall, with 1,944 votes and Sal Petrovia, with 1,748 votes. No democrat has filed for the position.
Republican Tracy Richardson and Democrat Tiffanie Roberts, were each unopposed and will face each other in November for State Representative in the 86th District.
Incumbents David W. Phillips, with 5,701 votes for county prosecutor, Malcum J. Patton, with 5,939 votes for sheriff, Andrew Smarra, with 5,562 votes for treasurer, Jeff Stauch, with 5,624 votes for engineer, David T. Applegate II, with 5,744 votes for coroner, and Don W. Fraser, with 5,883 votes for common pleas court judge, were all unopposed in the primary. No democrat has filed for any of the positions.
With 610 votes for and 727 votes against, Jerome Township voters rejected a 3.5 mill, five-year fire and EMS operating levy.
If the levy passed, the 3.5 mill levy, along with withholding the 2.3 mill levy, would cost property owners $90 per $100,000 of property valuation per year.
Additionally, residents in Dover, Millcreek, York and Washington townships voted to renew tax levies to support their respective fire departments.
By a 23-5 margin, Magnetic Springs voters approved the renewal of a 5 mill, five-year levy to support the village operations fund.
A local liquor option to allow Sunday sales at a proposed Texas Roadhouse in Marysville passed.
Elections in Plain City are not yet final. While Union County Board of Elections has finalized voting, the Madison County Board of Elections will not conduct its official count until next week.
As it stands now, it appears residents approved the renewal of a 1.5 mill, five-year levy to support the Plain City Public Library.
It also appears Plain City voters approved the formation of a charter committee and selected its members.