Iron County completes election canvass

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Hurley — While the Iron County Clerk’s Office completed the required canvass Tuesday to formalize the voting totals in the April 5 election, the path forward for the seat representing Mercer’s District 11 on the Iron County Board of Supervisors remains up in the air.

While John Sendra beat incumbent Victor Ouimette 109 votes to 105 to represent District 11, issues arose during the election when an unknown number of voters received ballots for District 12’s county board seat — a race where Opal Roberts was running for re-election unopposed. Both districts voted in the same Mercer polling place.

Sendra, Ouimette, Iron County Clerk Michael Saari and Mercer Town Clerk Christan Brandt will meet today to discuss the options for proceeding.

As the loser of Tuesday’s contest, Saari said Ouimette has the option of demanding a recount since he only lost by four votes. State law gives Ouimette three days following the canvass to request a recount, making Friday afternoon his deadline.

While a recount is normally a required step before any alternative action is taken regarding contested elections, Saari said state law does provide a way for the recount to be skipped.

Under state law, if both sides stipulate the recount is unlikely to change the outcome of the race — as there were issues with the election that wouldn’t be resolved by simply counting the ballots again, such as the wrong ballots were given to voters — a recount could be skipped and Ouimette could appeal to Iron County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Madden that the election was so flawed the only course of action is to revote.

If Madden agreed with the argument, he could order a special election just for District 11 voters to decide who sits on the county board.

If the election’s result hasn’t be resolved by the county board’s April 19 meeting when the new board is sworn in, Saari said the seat would simply be left vacant until the winner is determined.