The August 6th Miami County primary election results are final after the canvass yesterday morning,August 19th. Although 28 ballots were added to the overall totals, Miami County Commissioner George Pretz maintained his eight-vote victory over challenger Rusty Gerken. According to the Miami County Republic, there were more spectators than usual for the canvass due to the close Miami County Commission District 3 race. Pretz will be unopposed in the November general election.
There were three challenged advance ballots and 69 provisional ballots from the primary election. One of the challenged advance ballots had no signature, and when election officials contacted the voter, they were advised to tear it up. The ballot was not approved. The signature on another advance ballot did not match the signature on record with the voter’s registration, but sheriff’s deputies visited the voter at a care facility and were able to witness the signature. The ballot was approved. Another advance ballot came in the day after election day because it was inadvertently dropped into Osawatomie’s utility drop box instead of the ballot box, but cameras recorded the incident at 4:10 p.m. on election day, so since it was before 7 p.m., the ballot was approved. The election turnout was 16%, with there being 4,153 ballots cast out of 25,936 registered voters.
