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Issue in Ringgold prolongs vote count
Counting Washington County ballots from the Tuesday primary stretched into Wednesday morning because of a series of events centering on a Ringgold School Board candidate.
Charles H. Smith Jr., 53, of New Eagle, an incumbent, filed nominating petitions for both an at-large and a Region 2 seat on the school board.
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The elections office programmed the database for the counting of ballots with Smith's name appearing for only the at-large seat and mailed absentee ballots to those who had requested them.
About 10 days to two weeks ago, Smith received word that his name was missing from one position on the absentee ballots and contacted the elections office.
The elections office sent a corrected ballot to the 35 or so voters who had requested one, but, with the election fast approaching, it also obtained a Washington County court order to give absentee voters in Ringgold School District only until Friday to return their ballots.
The touch-screen voting machines were reprogrammed to include Smith's name on the list of Region 2 candidates, said Larry Spahr, Washington County elections director.
It was too late, however, to change the computer database. So, on election night, with 175 of 184 precincts counted, the elections office used a manual entry process to count precincts from Monongahela, New Eagle and precincts 2 and 5 in Carroll Township which comprise Ringgold Region 2.
The delay, lasting more than 30 minutes, pushed the final count to approximately 12:15 a.m.
In the end, Smith lost his bid for a nomination from Region 2 to Christopher D. Carroll on both the Republican and Democratic tickets but won a nomination as a Republican for the at-large seat. Three at-large candidates are to be chosen in November from a list of four including Marianne Bulko, Democrat, William C. Stein, Jr., Democrat and Republican, Carroll, Democrat and Republican, and Smith.
