2 Milwaukee County board races remain unsettled with a potential recount, write-in ballots still being tallied
The close of voting Tuesday in Milwaukee County board races left two looming questions:
Will former state Rep. Josh Zepnick challenge Juan Miguel Martinez's slim 17-vote-margin victory for District 12's supervisory seat?
And, what will happen to District 18 — which was left with an unforeseen write-in-only ballot and eight registered write-in candidates bidding for the role of supervisor?
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With all but these two races finalized, the Milwaukee County Board experienced a shakeup after the election as old faces were reelected into a newly drawn district or voted out and new ones ushered in.
The Milwaukee County Election Commission faces a hard deadline to complete their canvass and certify the election no later than April 15.
Before the commission can meet that deadline, it must wait for the city of Milwaukee to conduct its canvass and deliver the ballots to the county, according to Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson.
A possible recount in District 12?
Late Tuesday Zepnick and Martinez were neck and neck in the race for the District 12 supervisory seat. It was one of the final close calls of the night.
FULL COVERAGE: Spring election results
Martinez won 50.04% of the district's votes with 1,780 of the cast ballots, while Zepnick received 49.56% with 1,763 votes, according to unofficial final results.
Zepnick told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he was trying to determine whether to ask for a recount.
Christenson confirmed that Zepnick can request a recount, but he would have to pay for the recount as the difference was greater than 10 votes.
Christenson said the commission staff was already preparing the estimated cost as a formality and it would be ready as early as Thursday morning.
A recount may not do much to change the 17-vote margin, according to Mordecai Lee, an emeritus political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
"Recounts rarely change outcomes," Lee said. "Certainly, the recounts that happened in Milwaukee County after Trump lost the election sort of is an indication that this is a pretty reliable process."
"Still 17 votes to the loser is a heartbreaker," Lee said.
Will there be a District 18 winner?
Questions surrounded the District 18 race when the district's incumbent Russell Antonio Goodwin Sr. failed to secure enough signatures to get on the ballot, falling six short of the required 200, leaving the race wide open Tuesday night.
Eight registered write-ins, including Goodwin and his predecessor Deanna Alexander, were competing for the open seat.
"Winning by write-in is so much harder," Lee said. "It's telling us about the unmotivated voters and the impetus to want to participate in an exclusively write-in election."
Tuesday night 1,855 district residents cast their votes.
This is not the first time the County Board has faced a write-in only race, however.
Former County Board chairman Theo Lipscomb, Sr. got his political start in April 2008 when he beat then-County Supervisor James G. White — both write-in candidates — for District 1.
Much like District 18's incumbent, White failed to meet statutory requirements to get on the District 1 ballot.
Christenson said his staff would have to do a hand count of the ballots submitted for District 18 and expected to have the final results within days.
Wednesday he confirmed that the process of counting the write-ins was underway.
Contact Vanessa Swales at 414-308-5881 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Vanessa_Swales.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County Districts 12 and 18 face potential shakeups
