Adams Central School board election up in the air... for now

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - Adams Central school patrons may have to wait before they learn who will sit on the school board.

Four candidates were running for three seats on the board, including incumbents David Johnson, Greg Mucklow, Tim O’Dey and challenger Derek Uhrmacher. Unofficial results from Adams County show O’Dey and Uhrmacher with the most votes for two of those seats. But for the third seat, Mucklow has only three more votes than Johnson.

Adams County Clerk and Election Commissioner Ramona Thomas said a recount in that race is possible.

One of the variables in this race is that voters from other counties also decide who sits on the Adams Central board because the district’s boundaries include not just Adams County, but also Clay, Webster, Hall and Kearney counties.

The unofficial results from Webster, Hall and Kearney counties did not show any votes cast for the Adams Central school board election. But the unofficial results in Clay County show Johnson with 26 votes and Mucklow with 19. Johnson’s seven vote advantage would appear to show that he would beat Mucklow for the third seat on the Adams Central board.

Thomas said we’ll have to wait until all counties involved have canvassed their results, making them official. She also said that she’s waiting to learn whether she’ll have to recount votes cast in Adams County for other statewide races which may be subject to a recount. If she does have to recount votes in other races, she would wait until December 7 to recount those votes and the votes for the Adams Central School board.

She said if she does not have to recount votes in other races, she may do the recount for Adams Central sooner. She said it would likely be next week before she knows when a recount would happen.

State law provides for an automatic recount in any race where the margin between two candidates is less than 1% of the total number of votes cast for the leading vote getter. The Adams Central case, the leading vote getter was Tim O’Dey with 1,456 votes. Depending on how it’s calculated the threshold for a recount would 14 or 15 votes.

The difference in votes cast for Mucklow and Johnson in Adams county is three, in Clay county it’s seven. It would appear, based on the state statute that a recount would be necessary in that race.