Election results are in, but 11 provisional ballots are now the key to who will serve on the Town Council.
Lance Miller and Rex Watters III won the Nashville Town Council Election as it stands right now. However, there are still 11 provisional ballots that could very well change the results. Not counting the provisional votes, the top two winners are tied with 116 votes each. The candidate in third place, Bruce Gould, is at 111.
“As of right now, our winners are Lance Miller and Rex Watters,” said Brenda Young, Town Clerk-Treasurer. “The provisional ballots could absolutely make a difference though with the numbers being so close.”
Young was up for re-election as well for the Town Clerk-Treasurer position. She was uncontested and ended up with 198 votes in total. She said she is honored and grateful to be serving the community again and she takes a lot of pride in doing so.
A provisional vote came from a voter who perhaps did not have the proper ID when they voted. Their vote is counted as provisional and they have 10 days to confirm eligibility. Depending on how many, if any of those votes are counted, the outcome could change.
According to Heather Nicholson, Republican Election Board Member, when talking to the state they found out that is it common for provisional ballots to be part of an election, but those votes don’t often have the chance to change the outcome.
“When there’s a bigger election there’s more of a variety of the winner, but when it’s close it really matters,” said Nicholson.
She said there were three main reasons the Town Election had 11 provisional votes. People may not have had everything they needed signed, they didn’t register before the Oct. 10 deadline or the poll book showed the voter lived in Washington 1 and not Washington 2.
“We had the problem of some people’s poll book saying they lived in Washington 1 when they really live in Washington 2,” said Nicholson. “There were some people who had moved and some people who were just misrepresented by the state because the poll books come from the state.”
Nicholson said Young and the Election Board are working on the problem, and on Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. they will hold an open meeting where those voters can come in and show their voter receipts and prove their vote counts.
“The reason we had to put them into the provisional is because they had missing evidence,” said Nicholson. “They’ve all been contacted and they know what they need to bring in to get this fixed and be assured their vote will count.”
She said nothing would be final and no votes would be counted until that meeting.
After Miller, Waters III and Gould was Ross Benson with 89, Nancy Crocker with 48 and Marguerite Collins with 19.
“Any of the candidates would’ve been great, and I’m happy and honored that I may be selected,” said Watters III. “I’m excited to see what the final results are.”
“I’d like to wait and see if I won, I don’t have a lot of experience with provisional ballots so I don’t know exactly how that will play out,” said Miller. “I would say I’m excited to see what happens and really appreciative, and I guess it’s time to get to work.”
“I have learned with elections you can never guess how they’re going to turn out, so it is what it is,” said Bruce Gould. “I send my congratulations to the winners. I really don’t expect to see the remaining ballots make any difference, so we’ll just go on from here.”
“I guess I’m disappointed that I didn’t do better, but I think all the candidates who were in the race are good people and will work hard for the town of Nashville,” said Ross Benson. “I’ll continue to be interested and participate wherever I can.”
“I’m so glad it all worked out, and I kept praying and hoping that people wouldn’t vote for me,” said Marguerite Collins. “I feel so good about it and so glad of the decision I made. We had great people that were running, and I’m happy for the people who did get selected. It’s all going to work out in the end.”
“I kind of went into this thinking whatever happens is fine and that’s how I feel,” said Nancy Crocker. “I’ll continue to be on the Board of Zoning Appeals, Redevelopment Commission Board and the Utility Service Board and will serve my community, maybe even better on those boards than I could on the council. I just hope that the new council has a vision of the future and not just day-to-day tasks that they start planning for the future and that they keep that in mind as they serve this community.”
Turn to the Brown County Democrat’s website and socials to see updates on the provisional ballots and who the final winners will be.
