Technical difficulties with the 3 voting machines used in the Marshall County Clerk’s Office for absentee voting delayed primary voting results on Tuesday night.
Marshall County Clerk Treasurer Deb VanDeMark said the three machines had all the ballots from all 30 precincts and when the election board attempted to download the vote tallies the machines bogged down with too much data.
To keep the process moving the decision was made to put absentees on the back burner and get the results out from the 12 vote centers.
The District 3 County Commissioner race was one people had been talking about. Incumbent Kevin Overmyer was challenged by current County Council member Bill Githens. Overmyer won with 67.62% of the vote (5332 to 2553).
Another close race was that for County Treasurer. There were three candidates and in the end, Angie Johnson Birchmeier received 39.56% of the vote or 3194 votes while William Cleavenger had 2957 votes and Steve Heim took 1922 votes.
Another big race on the Republican ballot was that for County Council at large. There were a total of 6 candidates for the three open seats. Penny Lukenbill garnered 4593 votes and JIm Masterson followed with 4309 votes. The incumbent Jon VanVactor was the third highest vote getter with 3625 votes. The other candidates were Steve Harper with 2989, Toni Hutchings with 2735 votes and Jack Roose with 2353 votes. Lukenbill, Masterson and VanVactor will face off against Democrats John Nifong, Julian Rouch and Donna Wenzel in the General Election in November.
Craig Cultice won the race for surveyor on the Republican ticket with 3060 votes over Rex Gilliland’s 2406 votes, Dennis Morrison’s 1923 votes and Don Heckford’s 503 votes.
Mike Delp Sr. came out on top in the District 2 County Commissioner seat beating Jason Hall 5333 to 2496. In the fall Delp will face Rex Crump who ran unopposed on the Democrat ticket.
John Grolich who ran for coroner on the Republican ticket received 59.24% of the vote with 4726 to his challenger Bridget Hite’s 3252 votes.
All ballots were counted but the results are unofficial until the election is certified by the election board on May 13th.
