Election results official, local recanvass of votes not requested

Posted November 23, 2016 at 9:52 am

The November 8 presidential election turned out to be one of the closest, not only in recent decades but of all-time, between President-elect Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was actually one of the rare times in American history that the “loser” of the race gained more of the overall popular vote but still lost the election by virtue of trailing by an unexpected wide margin in states and overall electoral votes.

Several other federal races such as Congressional and U.S. Senate races across the county were also extremely close. However, in Kentucky and here in Clinton County, not very many races were close.

The deadline for any candidate to seek a recanvass of votes in the general election was a week ago Tuesday, November 15 at 4 p.m. local time. However, in Albany and Clinton County, no recanvass by any candidates were sought. Had there been a recanvass, it would have taken place Thursday morning, November 17, according to County Clerk Shelia Booher.

Although no candidate sought a recanvass of voting machines or count of absentee ballots, there was one extremely close district race involving three Albany precincts. In that race, incumbent school board member Crystal Irwin lost by a razor thin six votes to challenger Gary Norris by a final tally of 417 to 411 votes.

That was the only local races which saw a difference of less than double digit wins.

The closest other race was for the sixth spot on the Albany City Council, where 47 votes separated the winning candidate, incumbent Frankie Stockton, who had 373 votes, to seventh place finisher Jon Cowan who tallied 326 votes. A total of eight candidates were in the race for the six seats.

Now that the race is over and final results are being certified across the state and nation, the next deadline for elections when voters can switch their political parties in time to vote in next year’s primary election nears.

However, Booher pointed out that in calendar year 2017, that deadline is somewhat moot in that there will be no primary or general elections held in Clinton County and no state elections in Kentucky next year.

The next election cycle will be in 2018 when not only all local county and city seats will be up for grabs, but two seats will be on the ballot for school board and there will also be some federal elections, including Congress and one U.S. Senate race.