Recount shows no change in at-large Delaware County Council winners

A recount of the May GOP primary race for at-large county council resulted in the rejection of one absentee ballot that was originally counted on election night. But the margin of loss for council member Ryan Webb, who had requested the recount, remained at 68 votes.

According to Delaware County Clerk Rick Spangler, the court-appointed recount committee found an absentee ballot that lacked initials of employees of the clerk’s office, which are required to indicate the paper ballot is valid. That vote was thrown out by the committee.

Voters had been asked to pick three candidates for at-large council, and the rejected ballot apparently included a vote for both Webb, who finished fourth, and council member Eugene Whitehead, who finished third and will move onto the general election ballot in November. Because both candidates lost a single vote in the recount, the margin between the two stayed the same.

"I am pleased that after three months we finally have the results of the recount for the 2024 primary election,” Webb said in a statement released after the results were reported. “As we expected the recount outcome did not result in any significant changes to the vote totals.  I was happy to initiate the recount process at the request of several Delaware County voters who wanted assurances that our local elections were secure and without errors.”

Webb, who conceded the race Wednesday, went on to compliment county clerk personnel.

“I am pleased to report to everyone that our county clerk's office did an amazing job executing the election with very few errors found and citizens should have trust and confidence in not only this election," he said, "but future elections as well.”

“Congratulations again to the county council election winners and I look forward to serving out the remainder of my term until the end of the year," he said.

Spangler admitted that he wasn’t keen on doing the recount to begin with but found the experience showed the voting system in Delaware County works well.

Muncie attorney Brandon Murphy, who served as the Republican representative on the recount committee, was writing up the findings of the recount Wednesday to relay to Special Judge Brian Bade. The recount request was filed in Delaware Circuit Court 3, but local judges recused themselves for matter, and Bade, who serves as Circuit Court Judge in Blackford County, agreed to oversee the recount.

Other members of the recount committee were local attorney Maricel Driscoll, representing Democrats, and Knox County Clerk David Shelton, who is familiar with recounts and the MicroVote voting machines used in Delaware County.

The trio met Monday to discuss how to proceed with the recount and discussed a ruling by Bade to allow for the recount to include precincts not requested by Webb to speed up the recount work.

Spangler said the county has what he called “super precincts” in which voting sites include numerous precincts all using the same vote machines. To separate specific precincts from the machines would have taken much longer.

When one of the 46 precincts Webb requested be recounted included the multiple precinct machines, the committee, with Bade’s permission, included the total machine count including precincts that were using that site.

Spangler said another county that was required to separate each precinct took days to complete. The recount in Delaware County took all day Monday, finishing in the early evening.

The recount process involved the committee eyeing each absentee ballot and then going through the tally tape recorded on each machine and comparing that information to what was recorded on election night.

The machines themselves did not need to be accessed during the recount.

Officials from the Voting System Technical Oversight Program, or VSTOP, from the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, were on hand to observe the recount process.

Chad Kinsella, managing director of the Bowen Center, said the local recount gave staff a chance to see how a recount is done.

Shelton said some officials in Indianapolis might be looking at VSTOP to start oversight of recounts in Indiana because judges so often recuse themselves from administering the often-controversial recounts of contested elections.

Kinsella said his team, which oversees election audits across the state to verify the systems are working as they should, was on hand to learn but not to train to conduct recounts.

David Penticuff is a freelance reporter for The Star Press.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Recount shows no change in at-large Delaware County Council winners