By Jalen Maki
Tomahawk Leader Editor
LINCOLN COUNTY – Following a recount of votes cast in the Lincoln County District 19 Supervisor race held during the Spring Election on Tuesday, April 5, incumbent Julie L. Allen’s victory stands.
The Lincoln County Board of Canvass met to administer the recount on Thursday, April 14.
Preliminary results showed that Allen narrowly defeated challenger Matthew Webb to retain her seat on the board. 210 votes (approximately 51%) went to Allen, while Webb earned 202 votes (about 49%). One write-in vote was tallied.
Lincoln County Clerk Christopher J. Marlowe said that although the result of the race did not change, one additional vote went to Allen after the recount.
“There were a couple abnormalities discovered,” Marlowe stated, noting that they were “all human errors and all things that were covered in our pre-election poll worker training classes.”
“Election days can be very busy and can get to be long for those that are working the whole time, many of which are retired and have been for some time,” Marlowe stated. “There are many different ways mistakes can occur during an election, as we are reminded now and then. They are never excusable and often magnified during the recount process.”
Marlowe said all elections are unique in their own way, noting that Spring Elections are “always one of the tougher ones in terms of complexity.”
“We had over 50 different ballots and just came out of the Census, where our redistricting timelines were severely altered due to the counts being extremely delayed,” he stated. “We were quite sure that our district lines would have to stay in place for another two years. Governor Evers made a late decision to redistrict, if you recall.”
The county rushed to complete district and ward lines after Census numbers were released, Marlowe said.
“We then did not have much time to digest the changes that were made,” he added.
All-in-all, Marlowe commented, the execution of the Spring Election in Lincoln County went “very well.”
“We strive for perfection every election, but also understand that our election workers are only human,” he stated. “I am very confident in our people and our process. April was our warm up for a very busy fall to come. Odd years, in which there are no fall elections, allow us clerks to catch up on our other work. The downside to the election lull that we just came out of is that our elections inspectors go an entire year without an election. It is very hard to perfect anything that you do not often do.”