Columbiana County Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco, left, and Administrative Assistant Niki Wilkinson place pieces of paper representing each voting precinct in the county into a jar for the random selection of precincts to count by hand in the county Municipal Court Jan. 1 term judge race (Photo by Mary Ann Greier)

LISBON — The margin for Danielle Menning’s victory over Columbiana County Municipal Court Judge Kelly Linger widened to 33 votes, but the race remained close enough to qualify for an automatic recount.

The county Board of Elections certified the official results of the May 6 primary/special election on Thursday and ordered the recount of the Republican judge race starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the board office, 7989 Dickey Drive, Lisbon.

The recount was triggered because the difference in votes between the two candidates for the Republican nomination was less than one half of 1%. If the difference had been more than 43 votes, the race would not have qualified for the automatic recount.

On Election night, Menning won by 28 votes, but then with the official count, which included any absentee ballots that came in later and provisional ballots that counted, her margin grew to 33 votes. The final tally gave Linger 4,382 votes and Menning 4,415 votes. Menning had 50.19 percent and Linger had 49.81 percent.

During the meeting, county Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco explained the process that must be followed for a recount, including the fact that at least 5% of the votes cast in the race must be counted by hand. With 8,797 votes cast, 5% of that equals at least 439 votes to be counted by hand in bipartisan, two-person teams consisting of one Democrat and one Republican each. The county Board of Elections staff includes three Democrats and three Republicans, so there will be three teams counting.

The board also randomly selected the precincts for the count by hand. Fusco, a Democrat, and Administrative Assistant Niki Wilkinson, a Republican, printed out a list of all 73 precincts with the precinct name and number, and cut each one individually to the same size, placing them in a jar. During the meeting, they dumped the pieces of paper from the jar on the table, each representing one precinct, and gave board members an opportunity to inspect them to make sure all 73 were there.

Then Fusco and Wilkinson carefully folded the individual pieces of paper by three and placed them back in the jar, Wilkinson shook them up, then board Vice Chairman Patty Colian, a Democrat, pulled enough precincts out one by one to total more than 439 votes, with assistance from board Chairman David Johnson, the county Republican Party Chairman,witnessed by board member Charley Kidder, a Democrat.

Precincts to be recounted by hand include Butler South representing 139 votes, Liverpool Township West representing 126 votes, Salem Township-Franklin Square representing 122 votes and Elkrun Township representing 206 votes for a total of 593 votes that will be recounted by hand.

Once the recount by hand is finished, the ballots will be put through a machine to be counted again. If the numbers from the hand-count and the machine-count match, then the rest of the ballots for the race will be placed in the machine to be counted.

The board will then meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday to certify the results of the recount.

Fusco said the recount is open to the public. Each candidate may observe and designate an official observer to also watch on their behalf and may appoint more observers to observe each counting station. Official observers must fill out a form, but members of the general public do not. Fusco planned to contact each candidate by phone and email to make them aware of the process and their opportunity to appoint official observers.

Besides certifying the official canvass, the board certified the results from any overlapping counties. For the Salem At Large Council race, there were no votes cast in Mahoning County, which covers a sliver of Salem. Jim Harrington had 672 votes, Michael Weir had 642 votes and Trent Tice had 562 votes, giving them the Republican nominations for the three seats. Dennis Plegge, a former councilman, had 514 votes.

The only other ballot item that included voters from other counties was the Southern Local school district tax levy renewal. The total result was 363 yes votes and 339 no votes. Those totals included two no votes cast in Carroll County and four yes votes and one no vote cast in Jefferson County.

mgreier@mojonews.com