WARREN — An amendment to the Newton Falls Charter that had won by 10 votes on election night, November 8, was ultimately voted out by two votes when unresolved absentee and provisional ballots were included in the count. Approved.
The Charter Amendment will be subject to automatic recounts because the margin of victory is within 0.5%, Election Commissioner Stephanie Penrose said. The recount is he scheduled for December 6th.
“I don’t think this equipment will change anything.” she said. “It is well equipped.”
The Electoral Commission approved the election results on Monday.
The Charter Amendment would require a 90-day deadline from the date of initial filing to obtain the required number of signatures on the petition, and by placing the recall at the earliest possible primary or general election, the change the election procedure of Scheduled.
When the votes were tallied on Election Day, it was leading 663 to 653.
However, the village still had 27 uncounted votes. Of those, 26 voted for this particular Charter amendment, 9 for and 17 against.
Including those votes narrowed the lead to 2 votes, 672 to 670. His margin of victory is 0.14%.
Overall, seven charter amendments were put to the ballot at Newton Falls. 4 of them passed.
On Dec. 6, Elections Commission officials will hand-count ballots in one of the village’s four constituencies and compare the results with those counted by an optical scanner, Penrose said. . If the totals are the same, the results are certified. If they are different, another hand count of those areas is made and compared with the scanner. If they are different, a third round is held, and if they are still not the same, all votes are manually recounted.
The board must count at least 5% of the votes in recounts as long as there is at least one full constituency.
Newton Falls has four constituencies, so counting one means about 25% of the votes will be included in the recount, Penrose said.
The recount should take about an hour, she said.
No races in the county were affected by the inclusion of outstanding absentee ballots and provisional ballots, and none were close enough for automatic recounts.
An unprocessed absentee ballot is a ballot that a voter requested by mail and did not arrive at the Board of Elections until after Election Day. These ballots had to be postmarked by November 7th, the day before Election Day, and arrived at the board by November 18th.
Provisional ballots prevent people’s names or addresses from appearing on the official ballot list if their names or addresses do not match voter registration information with the Electoral Commission and if voters do not have proper identification at the time of voting. Used when Scenarios include if you have already requested an absentee ballot or if your signature does not match the signature on your registration form in the opinion of precinct officials.
