By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — The Ohio Secretary of State’s office will not assume control of a recanvass of ballots cast in Ashtabula County’s Nov. 3 general election, Duane Feher, county election board deputy director, said Thursday.
In an e-mail sent the board, the SOS said law is clear that “any and all” recount-related activity is the responsibility of county election boards, Feher said.
On Wednesday, Janine Trebuchon-Wertz, Ashtabula Board of Education president, who’s re-election bid could be impacted by the action, requested the county step aside from the recanvass process and let the state take over.
“It’s the only fair thing to do,” she said at an emergency election board meeting.
The election board relayed the request to Columbus, and the state said no, Feher said. However, an SOS representative is expected to observe the recanvassing, he said.
Trebuchon-Wertz, reached for comment Thursday, said she was “disappointed” with the state’s answer and still believes Columbus’ direct involvement is the best idea. “I appreciate (the election board) checking into it,” she said.
At issue are 333 provisional ballots spread across the county that accidentally were double-counted, election officials have said. As a precaution, the election board will check by hand every paper ballot received during the election and rescan all memory cards from machines that received votes at the county’s 127 precincts.
The work is under way and could continue into Saturday, Feher said. The election board will be asked to certify the outcome at a special 10 a.m. meeting in Jefferson.
The only major race that could be affected by the review is for the school board seat held by Trebuchon-Wertz. On Election Day, unofficial results gave Trebuchon-Wertz a narrow win over challenger Deborah Wright.
When provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots were factored, however, the result was flipped — Wright was given a 24-vote victory. Election board members certified Wright’s win, along with the rest of the county races and issues, at a special meeting late last month.
The wafer-thin margin qualified the race for a free recount. Election workers preparing for that recount discovered the provisionals were tabulated separately and then accidentally added onto totals for absentee ballots, Feher has said.
Provisional is the term given ballots cast outside a voter’s usual precinct or by a voter who couldn’t produce identification at the polling place. Those ballots are counted late to give workers time to verify the voter is registered.
The absentee ballots at stake are those postmarked before Nov. 3 but delivered after the election.
Depending on the results certified Monday, another recount could occur if the candidates are separated by less than one half of 1 percent, election officials said.
Trebuchon-Wertz collected 2,840 votes, compared to 2,650 votes for Wright, on Election Day. However, Wright overcame that advantage by receiving 615 absentee votes and 62 provisional votes, while Trebuchon-Wertz earned 429 absentee and 34 provisional votes, according to election board figures.
