ASHTABULA — The excitement of winning a seat on the Ashtabula Area City School Board is still brand new for Debbie Wright of Plymouth Township.
After all, she just found out about the win Tuesday.
Eleventh hour votes pushed Wright ahead of incumbent Janine Trebuchon-Wertz, allowing her to seize the third and final vacant school board seat, according to the official results of the Ashtabula County Board of Elections.
“I am thrilled to have won a seat,” Wright said. “I just wish I wasn’t inheriting such a mess.”
Election-board members certified the results of all general election races Tuesday, making Wright’s win official — she turned a 29-vote deficit into a 24-vote victory — unless a pending recount says otherwise.
On Nov. 3, it looked like Wright had finished fourth in a race in which the top three vote-getters won school board seats. She came in behind the third-place candidate, who is also the school board’s president, Trebuchon-Wertz, by only 29 votes, but provisional and absentee votes pushed Wright ahead of the school board president, giving her a surprising win Tuesday.
The close race between the two women qualifies the race for a free recount, scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 3, said Richard Hornstein, election-board director.
After having had time to ponder her situation, Wright said: “Can we conclude that this town is frustrated with the current school board president? I think we can at least declare the majority voice wants to see a change.”
Wright promises to do her best to work out the problems at hand and to work hard to make her tenure on the school board “an honorable one,” she said.
Wright will start her term in January 2010.
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