Whitehall City Council member Lori Elmore will retain her seat on council after a recount by the Franklin County Board of Elections showed that she defeated a recall election by eight votes.
Elmore, along with Mayor Michael Bivens and at-large Council member Amy Harcar, had been targeted in a special recall election that took place on June 23. Whitehall residents voted to keep Bivens and Harcar in their respective seats, while Elmore’s fate was uncertain after unofficial results showed that she was defeated by just six votes.
However, there were 29 provisional ballots, one overseas ballot and one ballot with an envelope error that remained to be counted after the unofficial results were reported.
The county Board of Elections on June 29 certified the results of the election and approved 24 of the 29 provisional ballots. Five of them were rejected during the meeting, two because the voters did not have a proper photo ID and three others because the people who cast the ballots were not registered to vote in Ohio.
According to the official results, Elmore received 1,094 “yes” votes to retain her seat on City Council, while there were 1,086 “no” votes seeking her ouster. Meanwhile,1,146 voters said “yes” to keeping Bivens as mayor, and there were 1,113 “yes” votes in favor of Harcar keeping her seat on City Council.
Because Elmore’s election results fell within the 0.5% margin of error, it automatically went into a recount, which took place July 7 at the Board of Elections building. There were no changes to the original certified election results, according to the Board of Elections. The results of the election are now officially certified.
“The recount process is an important part of Ohio’s election system and serves as an additional safeguard to ensure every valid vote is accurately counted,” Franklin County Board of Elections Director Antone White said in a press release announcing the results. “Today’s recount confirmed the accuracy of the original certified official results and reflects the professionalism and dedication of our bipartisan election officials.”
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lori Elmore will retain Whitehall council seat after defeating recall
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
