PARKERSBURG – The Wood County Clerk’s race ended election night with only 17 votes separating Mark Rhodes and Bob Buchanan and 208 provisional ballots still hanging in the balance.
The unofficial vote tally from Tuesday night was 10,350 for Rhodes, one of the few Democrats to come out ahead election night, and 10,333, 49.94 percent for Republican Buchanan.
When the county commission convenes Monday as the board of canvass and will rule on the challenged ballots. If a challenge is overuled, the ballot is counted.
A time for the canvass will be set during today’s county commission meeting.
“It’s really not scary. But whichever way it goes, you will not see a recount request from me. I have too much faith in the process that everything is accurate,” Rhodes said.
Both candidates said election night they would wait and see the canvass outcome before celebrating or capitulating.
“There’s always a chance, you never know, particularly when it’s that close,” Buchanan said.
He said he will probably attend the canvass.
“It was a great race, 17 votes is a good race,” Buchanan said election evening. “I don’t have a lot of experience with elections, but I did all the things I knew to do and it’s always tough to beat an incumbent, even though Mark was appointed, he still held the office.”
Historically many of the challenged ballots are those voted by pollworkers who work out of their precinct on election day and vote at the precinct where they are working. Since the voter registration records reflect they are voting out of their home precinct, their ballot must be challenged, but those challenges are overruled and those votes counted in the canvass.
Absentee ballots which are properly postmarked election day and received by the start of the canvass will also be added into election night totals. Rhodes said his office received 27 absentee ballots just on Wednesday morning.
“As long as they are postmarked election day and received before the start of the canvass, those will also be counted,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes, who was appointed county clerk after 26-year veteran clerk Jamie Six retired last year, has seen some squeakers in the past. But he’s never been actually been personally involved in the hotly contested race.
“We’ve had some close ones in the past and we’ve seen it even come down to a coin toss in one election. The coin toss is a viable option allowed by state code in the event of a tie,” he said.
Back in the 2008 Democratic primary, House of Delegates candidates Iris McCrady and Tim Fittro squared off against each other. McCrady was up by three voters prior to the canvass. The candidates were tied after the canvass.
“So they did a coin toss, they used a Bicentennial coin. McCrady won the coin toss then went on to lose in the general election. The loser of the coin toss got to keep the Bicentennial coin,” Rhodes said.
According to county records, in the 2004 Republican primary Steve Greiner was 13 votes up on Ken Merritt in the sheriff’s race on election nigh; after the canvass Merritt came out ahead by 11 votes and went on to win the general election.
In the 2010 House of Delegates primary, Fred Gillespie was beating Randy Rapp by 10 votes. After the canvass, Rapp came out on top.
In Jamie Six’s first election for county clerk back in 1986 against incumbent H.K. Smith there was only a 48-vote difference in the final vote total between the two men.
Rhodes said there were quite a few changes of address from voters election day and many of the provisional ballots may be those voters.
“Their name would not be in the voter registration records yet at their new precinct since they just changed their address on election day, so the pollworkers would have challenged their ballot,” Rhodes said. But as long as the voter cast their ballot in their new precinct, the vote will be counted during the canvass. If they went to their old precinct to vote, it will not be counted.
Once the overruled challenged ballots are counted and the absentees received by canvass added in, the results will be declared by the county commission.
At that point a 48-hour clock begins ticking during which candidates can request a recount. The candidate requesting the recount must post a $300 bond to cover the cost. If the recount takes longer, that bill could go up.
Once the 48-hour time period ends, if there is no challenge, the results are then certified.
The canvass also includes a handcount of two Wood County precincts. The precincts which are handcounted are drawn at random.
The winner of the clerk’s race will serve out the remainder of Six’s unexpired term. In 2016, the office will be on the ballot for a full six-year term.