Liberty Township recount ends in tie
By Debbie Lowe

Sealed ballot container opened for recount Recount commission members Carolyn Pearson, Beth Myers and Denise Strasser untape sealed containers with the Jackson and Liberty township ballots cast in the November general election. The commission was appointed by Carroll Circuit Judge Donald Currie to perform the recount in response to a petition filed by Republican Party Chairman Tom Gray. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

A recount commission appointed Nov. 30 by Carroll Circuit Court Judge Donald Currie met Monday afternoon to count ballots from Jackson and Liberty township advisory board races. The commission was established in response to a petition requesting a recount of the races filed Nov. 27 by Republican Party Chairman Tom Gray.

Commission members Denise Strasser, Beth Myers and Carolyn Pearson declared no change in the outcome of the race in Jackson Township. However, a tie was declared in Liberty Township.

The group began their duties by determining that the most important issue before them was to decide the intent of each voter when they cast their ballots. With that in mind, they chose to count votes for individual candidates cast on ballots marked as voting a straight party. Only the candidates’ names marked on the ballots were counted.

Indiana Code 3-12-1-7, Sec. 7 (a) reads: “If a voter votes a straight party ticket and also votes for one (1) or more individual candidates who are all of the same political party as the straight ticket vote, the straight ticket vote shall be counted and the individual candidate votes may not be counted.”

County clerk Laura Sterrett read the code out-loud before the commission began their work. However, they determined voter intent to be the important issue. Member consensus was that logically speaking, if someone only voted for two out of three party candidates when three were available, the voter intended to choose only two candidates, not three.

Commission members further decided to count votes cast on ballots without initials of a polling person and to only count OPTECH ballots.

The Liberty Township race results were certified Dec. 11 as Joseph Martin (R) with 112 votes and Jason Scott (R) with 110 votes as clear winners. Carla Shaeffer (R) and Richard Rinehart (D), both with 85 votes, tied for advisory board seats.

Sterrett said the next step in the process is for her to submit the certification of the results to the state election board.