The race to represent District 62 in the Indiana House of Representatives continues after 6,642 early voting ballots were added to Monroe County’s vote totals Wednesday morning.
The ballots were excluded initially due to an issue with transferring data to digital storing drives, according to what Monroe County deputy clerk Tressia Martin and election supervisor Karen Wheeler told the BSquareBulletin.
The mix-up caused many media outlets to call the race for Republican Dave Hall over Democrat Penny Githens. Hall delivered a victory statement on Facebook Tuesday night.
Although votes are counted in Monroe County, provisional ballots remain, which will be counted by the Monroe Election Board at noon Nov. 18.
In Jackson County, which contains part of District 62, four ballots remain. Three of those are mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures or missing signatures and require an affidavit to be returned by noon Nov. 16 in order to be counted. One ballot is a provisional ballot, which will be examined Nov. 18.
A provisional ballot is offered to a voter when their voting eligibility is challenged. The election board later examines the ballots to determine whether the individual is eligible; if so, that ballot is then counted and added to official totals.
Indiana law dictates a recount of an election at no cost to the candidates if the margin of victory is less than 1%. Currently, the 37-vote margin qualifies the race for a recount.
The IDS is waiting for a response from Brown County, the final county that makes up part of District 62, about their status on provisional ballots. This story will be updated.
