News
Alexander Levy Passes by One Vote, Automatic Recount to Follow
By: Benjamin Schwartz
Posted on:
The Alexander School Levy officially passed Friday morning by just one vote. The slim margin means an automatic recount will take place on June 3rd, since a half percent lead is needed to move forward without a recount according to Athens County Board of Elections director Debra Lee Quivey.
“This, to have not had a recount would have had to been twelve votes or more, said Quivey, “This was one vote so we knew, automatic recount.”
The final total as of Friday is 1,184 votes in favor of the tax against 1,183 votes against the tax, with the majority of votes coming from Athens County. Unofficial results had the levy passing by a margin of five votes before provisional and additional absentee ballots were counted. According to Quivey, Athens and Meigs Counties will hold their own separate recounts before combining the totals.
“We’re the most populous, because we overlap our school district into Meigs,” said Quivey. “Meigs has one township, Columbia, and they will do their own recount. And they will send their results to us as the most populous [county].”
This is the sixth time the levy has been put to voters.
Alexander School District’s Board President Josh Hutchinson says he won’t be relieved until after the recount.
“We’ll all just breathe a sigh of relief once the recount has ended,” said Hutchinson, “I guess this is just a reminder to all of us to go out and vote, every single vote did matter. I’m very hopeful of the recount.”
Board member Josh Collins’ hopes are high as well, adding that the board will have to choose which programs to bring back if the levy stands as passed.
“It’s something we have to have, the school district has to have for its long-term stability, so I’m very very hopeful that the sixth time has been the charm,” Said Collins. “But it also, in my mind, this makes it clear that we still have a very tough job ahead of us. We have to look at the cuts we’ve enacted in the past and determine fairly and equally how we start to reinstate those things.”
The Athens County recount is set to begin at 9am the morning of Monday June 3rd. Results will be made public during the day after Meigs County’s votes are added in to the total.