Former two-term Mayor Charlie Smithgall picked up 11 votes from provisional ballots, bringing the Republican’s total to 3,485, in the final canvassing of returns completed early this evening. Mayor Rick Gray, a Democrat, picked up five votes from provisional ballots, bringing his total to 3,792, said Mary Stehman, the county’s registrar of elections and chief clerk of the Election Board. So Gray’s margin of victory shrunk to 307 votes and will be reported thusly to the Department of State, Stehman said.
The official count is mandated under state law, and happens beginning every Friday following a primary or election here; officials compare return sheets and count used and unused ballots to verify the original results. Elections workers will begin reviewing votes in contests outside Lancaster City next week, including the 11-vote upset of Lancaster Township Supervisor Tony Allen.
Depending on what the canvassing shows, Allen could potentially petition the court for a recount of Tuesday’s election results, which show voters narrowly ousted the veteran Republican and toppled the GOP’s majority on the three-member board. In all, 2,365 voters cast ballots in the race, meaning Democrat Ben Bamford’s margin of victory was less than half a percentage point.
I spoke with Mike Pickard, a former township supervisor who now chairs the township GOP, on Thursday. He said Allen would not likely seek a court recount before the official canvassing is complete. “The Board of Elections said there could be absentee ballots that have not been scanned yet, military ballots, and provisional ballots,” Pickard said. “When you’re looking at only 11 votes difference, the only official thing I would say is, It’s probably not over.”
If Friday’s recount confirms Bamford’s win, he will join fellow Democrat Kathy Wasong on the board. She was elected to a six-year term in 2005.
There’s no provision at the county or state level that would trigger a recount in the event of an extremely close municipal race. A 2004 law authorizing automatic recounts deals only with races for president, governor and other statewide races.
If Allen petitions the court for a recount, he will be among only a few who have done so — and who were not successful. The three most recent recounts didn’t alter the outcomes in their races.
In 1999, Democrat Bill Saylor petitioned the court for a recount in the county commissioners race. Saylor finished in fourth place, 169 votes behind fellow Democrat Ron Ford, who had won the third and final seat. The recount upheld Ford’s win. In the 1993 election, Democratic City Councilman Eugene Aleci sought a recount after his narrow, 13-vote loss in a re-election bid. The recount confirmed he had lost the race. And in the 1990 primary, Republican William Bash sought a recount of the results that showed him losing the nomination for the city’s seat in the state House to fellow Republican Peter Hahn. The recount confirmed Hahn’s primary victory, although he went on to lose the general election to Democrat Mike Sturla.
Allen, 71, of 13 Parkside Ave., is a retired industrial electrician who is completing his third six-year term as a supervisor, and is currently the board chairman. Bamford is a 45-year-old real estate developer who lives at 1031 Woods Ave.
ON MORE THING: Reports that a write-in candidate unseated Oliver C. Overlander, who was first elected Marietta Mayor in 1981, are unfounded. Ernest E. Lehman, the write-in candidate who was trying to unseat Overlander, said he fell short in his bid by 60 votes, 312-252. Lehman said he was running because he felt some longtime issues in the northwest Lancaster County borough were not being tended to. “It’s time that somebody take a leadership position instead of just talking about them,” Lehman told me.
