Recanvass Thurs. confirms White still winner of District Judge race

Although the vote totals changed slightly during a recanvass Friday morning in the division two district judge’s race, the outcome stayed the same with challenger Fred White still narrowly beating incumbent Jason Price by 76 votes.

Both Price and White picked up two additional votes during the recanvass in Whitley County, which took about 19 minutes Friday morning.

Totals from a single E-slate voting machine in one precinct weren’t tabulated on election night, the recanvass showed.

Of the four votes cast on that machine for district judge, White received two votes and Price two votes.

The E-slate machines are electronic voting machines that are accessible by disabled voters.

Whitley County Clerk Kay Schwartz said that out of 36 voting precincts, no one cast a ballot on the E-slate machines in 32 precincts.

"Most people don’t vote and don’t want to vote on the E-slate machines," Schwartz noted.

The recanvass increased White’s vote total to 4,325 votes in Whitley County, and Price’s total to 3,890 votes.

McCreary County Clerk Eric Haynes said that no vote totals changed during the recanvass in his county Friday morning.
Price garnered 2,433 votes in McCreary County to White’s 2,074.

The recanvass in Whitley County was about 24 minutes late getting started because the four-member Whitley County Election Commission had difficulty getting a quorum.

Schwartz said that Democratic Election Commissioner Donald Witt was out of town due to a death in his wife’s family, and Republican Election Commissioner Nancy Jones had some unexpected business that she had to deal with.

The commission got a quorum after Donnie Witt Sr. was appointed as the Democratic Election Commissioner.

The Whitley County Election Commission is composed of the county clerk, the sheriff or his designee if the sheriff’s race is on the ballot, which in this case was Chief Deputy Tim Shelley, and the Democratic and Republican election commissioners.

During a recanvass, election officials merely check print outs of vote totals from each voting machine in each precinct to make sure that the results were recorded and tabulated correctly, Schwartz said.