Three southwest Ohio counties - Hamilton, Butler and Warren - will conduct recounts next week in nine suburban races that were extremely close in the official vote count.
Any race where there is a difference of one-half of one percent or less after the official count qualifies for an automatic recount.
Clermont County has no recounts from the Nov. 3 election, county elections director Judy Miller said.
But the three other counties have scheduled recounts for next week.
In Hamilton County, there are four:
- a race between John R. Estep and Bill Burkhardt for St. Bernard mayor where Estep led by seven votes out of 1,421 cast.
- a contest between Joe Harper and Steven Crase for mayor of Arlington Heights where Harper had a one vote lead out of 209 votes cast.
- a contest for a second seat on the Reading Board of Education where Dan Kunkel holds a three vote lead over Debbie Wisser.
- a race for a third seat on the Lincoln Heights village council where Phyllis Baber held a four-vote lead over Barbara Jackson-Hardy.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections will conduct its recount at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 3.
In Warren County, there will also be four recounts, including:
- a seat on Franklin City Council where Jason Faulkner leads Debbie Fouts by two votes.
- a Franklin Township trustee seat where incumbent Greg Sample trails Brian S. Morris by eight votes.
- a seat on the Franklin Board of Education where Lori L. Raleigh leads Andrew Fleming by 15 votes.
- a seat on the Mason Board of Education where Courtney Allen holds a 16 vote lead over Erin Schmidt.
The Warren County Board of Elections' recount will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Butler County has one recount. It is for a seat on the New Miami Board of Education. Three candidates - Susan J. Price, Penny Gray, and Christine Ruder - are within five votes of each other.
What happens in a recount is this:
The board of elections randomly draw a precinct or precincts equaling five percent of the total. A hand-count is then done of that precinct or those precincts. If the total matches the official count, the board staff scans all the ballots and that is the final official count.
If the hand-count does not match the scanned count, another five percent is chosen for hand-counting. But that is very rare.
