Kimminau wins South Callaway school board recount

Lee Fritz feeds a ballot into a computer during an official recount Wednesday of the South Callaway Board of Education election that ended in a tie Tuesday for one expiring board member. With him are Callaway County Clerk Denise Hubbard and Dean Powell. Fritz is vice president of the Callaway County Democratic Club and was the official representative of the Democratic Party in the recount. Powell is chairman of the Callaway County Repubican Committee and was the Republican Party representative in the recount. Both political parties are required by law to have a representative at the recount.
Lee Fritz feeds a ballot into a computer during an official recount Wednesday of the South Callaway Board of Education election that ended in a tie Tuesday for one expiring board member. With him are Callaway County Clerk Denise Hubbard and Dean Powell. Fritz is vice president of the Callaway County Democratic Club and was the official representative of the Democratic Party in the recount. Powell is chairman of the Callaway County Repubican Committee and was the Republican Party representative in the recount. Both political parties are required by law to have a representative at the recount.

The importance of a single vote was demonstrated Wednesday when a recount of Tuesday's South Callaway R-2 School District Board of Education election at Mokane resulted in a one-vote victory for Greg Kimminau.

When the unofficial election results were announced Tuesday night, the election appeared to end in a tie for one of the expiring positions on the school board between incumbent board President Erin Rogers Howard and Kimminau.

Callaway County Clerk Denise Hubbard said state law required an official recount of the ballots cast in the South Callaway school board contest because the election on Tuesday ended in a tie.

Hubbard said the law also requires representatives of Democratic and Republican parties to be present during the official recount.

Representing the Democratic Party during Wednesday's official election recount was former Callaway County Presiding Commissioner Lee Fritz, who now is vice president of the Callaway County Democratic Club. Fritz was defeated for presiding commissioner in 2010 by current Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann.

Representing the Republican Party during the recount was Dean Powell, chairman of the Callaway County Republican Central Committee.

Hubbard said the recount of all ballots cast in the South Callaway school board election revealed the voting machine did not count one ballot because the voter had not correctly connected the line to the name of the chosen candidate.

"Representatives of both political parties who acted as judges in the recount and I all agreed that it was the clear intent of the voter to vote for Kimminau and Arrowood for the school board," Hubbard said.

She said the voter drew a line to those names but had not properly filled in all of the space to connect the voter bar leading to the arrow to the name.

"That was the reason the computer did not count that ballot," Hubbard said.

For this reason, Hubbard she and the election judges from both political parties agreed that the voter had clearly indicated his intention to vote for Kimminau and Ryan Arrowood, the candidate who received the most votes in the election.

The recount created a new final vote total for the contest.

It showed one more vote each for Kimminau and Arrowood.

The two expiring positions on the board were held by Arrowood and Rogers Howard.

The recount showed Arrowood with 157 votes, one more than previously announced, Kimminau with 148, and Rogers Howard with 147 votes.

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