Ronald Albertson will be the newest member of the Clinton County Board of Education this January when the new term begins.

That was the result announced in the office of Clinton County Clerk Nathan Collins last Thursday morning when a recanvass of votes from the November 3 general election had been completed with no changes found in the election night reported vote totals.

Albertson, a first time candidate, defeated current 2nd District Board Member Lydia Sue Irwin by a single vote, 281 to 280.

During Thursday’s recanvass, Clinton County election officials rechecked reported vote totals from that race that included absentee paper ballots, early machine vote totals and election day machine vote totals.

During this year’s general election voting, with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, voters were allowed to vote by paper absentee ballot if they preferred, and any ballots that were received by Friday, November 6, through the mail, but had been postmarked on or before election day, November 3, would have been counted by local election officials.

Collins noted on election night that 1,028 paper ballots had been sent to Clinton County voters who had requested to vote by absentee, and that 37 of those ballots had not been returned and could have potentially reached his office in time to be counted by the above mentioned November 6 deadline.

As it turned out, however, none of those 37 ballots were returned and thus no change in the vote totals for the 2nd District Board of Education resulted from that possibility either.

On hand for last Thursday’s recanvass procedure were both candidates, Collins, Clinton County Sheriff Jeff Vincent, and Clinton County Election Commissioners Steve Clark (Democrat) and Willard Johnson (Republican).

Above, Irwin, Albertson, Clark, Johnson, Collins and Vincent, left to right, are shown as the vote totals were announced Thursday morning. At left, Vincent and Collins read and announce the votes from the voting machine tally rolls that were collected from the voting machines used in the November 3 general election.