Your vote counts: Several area races are too close to call

Here’s something that rarely happens in Dayton. Endorsed Democratic candidate Chris Shaw is leading Darryl Fairchild in the City Commission race by just. 0.45% of the vote. Shaw has 9,622 votes to 9,453 for Fairchild.

Dayton’s School Board race was also one of the closest in the region. Three seats are open. Robert Walker has 25.83% of the vote, Sheila Taylor, 25.75%, John McManus, 24.32 and Nancy Nerny, 24.06%. The difference between Nerny and McManus is just 123 votes.

Clay Township

Also in Montgomery County, the race for Clay twp. Trustee is close. Jefferey Requarth has 1,193 votes to 1,235 for Dale Winner.

Perry Township

In Perry Twp. in western Montgomery County, Dale Seim has just 20 votes more than his challenger in the trustee race Mark Burnett, it’s 820-800.

Clark County

Green Twp. additional 1.5 mill levy for roads is tight 530 yes to 521 no.

Darke County

The race for Greenville Twp. Trustee as down to single digits. Matthew Kolb has 1,604, Jeremy Edger has 1,595 and Geoff Surber has 1,530.

Sidney

In Shelby County 3 seats were up for Sidney City Council and the race for the third seat is only separated by 0.58% of the vote. Janet Born has 1,988 votes and Rufus Sims has 1,933.

St. Paris

One vote is all that’s separating two candidates for St. Paris Village Council in Champaign County. Terry Ervin II has 288 votes and Niven Jester has 287. Tyler Adkins won the other seat 2ih 331 votes.

Preble County

In the Preble County Village of Camden, the race for mayor is down to 7 votes. Lisa Moss has 243 votes and Dan Michael has 236.

Greene County

Who says your vote doesn’t count? In the village of Spring Valley in Greene County the race for clerk is up to two votes. Gail Harris has 61 votes and Karen Penry has 63.

Franklin

Four Franklin Council seats were up Tuesday night and the difference between the person in 4th and the person in 5th is one vote. Jason Faulkner has 1,044 votes and Debbie Fouts has 1,043.

Franklin Township

Also in Warren County, only 10 votes separate the candidates for Franklin Twp. trustee. Brian Morris has 3,394 votes and Greg Sample has 3,384.

Franklin School Board

Franklin’s School Board also has one of the closest races in the area. Andrew Fleming has 2,140 votes and Lori Raleigh has 2,165 for the second seat on the board. Robyn Donisi came in first with 2,224.

Piqua

Piqua has a weird system for electing its mayor, and the closeness of the race just adds to it. Kathryn Hinds, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Piqua, and Gary Michael Koenig, a civil engineer, ran for the 5th Ward seat on the city commission as well as mayor. The city charter requires the mayor to first be elected to a ward seat. The result Tuesday night was close enough to require a recount for the ward seat.

Unofficial returns from the Miami County Board of Elections showed Hinds with 50.1 percent and Koenig with 49.9 percent of the vote in the race for the 5th Ward. The vote for mayor was 48.9 percent for Hinds and 51.07 percent for Koenig.

Because the difference in the vote for the ward seat is less than one half of one percent, there will be a recount.

At this time, Hinds won the ward seat so she would be the mayor. Both she and Koenig said they would look forward to the recount.