BUCYRUS — The unofficial votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary election are in and one race is very close.
Kurt Fankhauser said he is waiting for the official vote count to be completed by the Crawford County Board of Elections on May 20 before celebrating his victory for Bucyrus City Council President against Terry Spiegel.
“It’s just too close to call,” said Fankhauser, who received 701 votes with Spiegel close behind with 694 votes.
According to Crawford County Board of Elections Director Ruth Leuthold, there are six provisional ballots to certify.
“Those six people must be registered to vote in the state of Ohio before we can count their votes as valid,” Leuthold said.
Leuthold said even if all six are for Spiegel, Fankhauser still would win by one vote but because the vote counts are within one-half of a percent, an automatic recount will occur.
No independent candidates filed by the deadline on Monday, May 6, to run for the council president position, which means the winner of the race will run unopposed in the general election in November.
Spiegel, who is also awaiting the official results of the race, said Fankhauser ran a good campaign and he thanks everyone in the community for their support.
For the position of mayor, incumbent Jeff Reser beat out three other candidates with 713 votes with candidate Jenny Vermillion receiving 434 votes, Louis Katona III with 163 votes and Mike Allonas with 103 votes.
Reser will run against Democratic candidate Ron Bores and independent Dan Wirebaugh in November for the position of mayor.
“I am humbled by the support shown to me by the voters,” Reser said. “Bucyrus is moving forward, and we will continue working to make our community a premier small town.”
Vermillion, Allonas and Katona thanked the community for the support they received and both Vermillion and Allonas said they may run for mayor again in the future.
The Bucyrus City Street Levy was approved by city residents with 1,274 people voting for the levy and 431 against.
“We are thrilled that the citizens of Bucyrus showed such strong support for our street department,” Reser said. “Thanks to Sis Love and Terry Spiegel for leading the campaign.”
Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent is relieved that a .5 percent sales tax was approved by voters across the county with 2,271 yes votes to only 949 no votes.
“I am relieved and grateful to the voters to be able to keep our jail operating properly,” Kent said.
Kent said he was able to meet with the Crawford County Prosecutor’s Office since the issue was voted down by voters in November to have the ballot language changed.
“The way it read before, it was confusing,” Kent said. “Also, we did a much better job this time around in getting the information out to residents as to what the money will be used for.”
A complete list of election results may be found here.