By Kimberly Gasuras
With nearly 100 provisional ballots left to certify and count by the Crawford County Board of Elections when they complete the official count of votes from Tuesday’s election on Nov. 21, one candidate is determined to force a recount.
Kurt Fankhauser lost his run for Bucyrus City Council President to incumbent, Garnet “Sis” Love, by 23 votes, with Love bringing in 1,117 votes to Fankhauser’s 1,094.
“I received so much overwhelming support from the citizens of Bucyrus that wanted to finally see change. If I gave up now, I would be letting all of those folks down. They are the ones that have been suffering for so long by the decisions of the few elite,” Fankhauser said. “We have real problems in this town, like utility rates spiraling out of control and weekly heroin overdoses and yet they continue to waste time and money on stuff like tree ordinances. If the incumbent president gets re-elected, then not only did I lose, but the whole town lost.”
Fankhauser said that he will pay to have a recount if the provisional votes do not change the outcome of the council president race.
“At this point, I’m leaving all options on the table per the Ohio Revised Code for re-count. If this election goes the wrong way and city officials continue to ignore the will of the citizens, we may even have to look into Ohio Revised Code 705.92, which is the, “Procedure for removal of elective officer by recall,” Fankhauser said Thursday.
Fankhauser pointed out that two other Bucyrus city council races were close and could change after the official count.
In the council-at-large race, incumbent Dan Wirebaugh had 898 votes while newcomer Jeff Norman came in at 888 votes, only a 10-vote difference. In the fourth-ward council race, all candidates were write-ins with incumbent Steve Pifer coming in first with 61 votes and newcomer Andrew Schoch garnering 56 votes.