STURGIS, S.D. – A recount in the Meade County Treasurer’s Race was held Monday and verified Robin Shrake the winner.
The recount was conducted by the Meade County Auditor’s office and shows Shrake with 1,862 votes and challenger Robin Korth with 1,818. Those are the same vote numbers from the June 4th primary election results.
Auditor Rhea Crane says it shows the accuracy and validity of elections in Meade County.
Because Meade County was having a recount, it was not required to conduct a post-election audit. This is the first year that counties were required to conduct this review.
However, Crane says the county decided to go ahead and perform a voluntary post-election audit to verify and prove that the county’s machine tabulator was indeed accurate.
Shrake will assume the new four-term term as treasurer in January because no other candidates from other parties filed to run for the general election in November.
Since January there have been at least three residents at each county commission meeting lobbying for the hand-counting of ballots. They are part of a statewide movement that has questioned the reliability of machine tabulators. (These machines are not connected to the internet.)
Crane was pleased, but not surprised, that there were no discrepancies found in either the vote totals in the Meade County Treasurer’s race; or with the data gathered in the audit. “These actions today confirm that residents can have complete confidence in the credibility of its election returns,” Crane said.
The recount board was composed of attorney Bob Haivala and Republicans Barb Keszler and Marilyn Bates. Korth was on hand. Shrake was represented by Francie Ruebel-Alberts. The two precincts hand-counted election night, Faith and one from Black Hawk, were again. The other 39 precincts were machine-counted in the order in which they were election night. There were no changes.
For the post-election audit, Crane appointed three Republicans and two Democrats consisting of Terry Anderson, Cami Goebel, Aaron Jordan, Suzanne Nelson, and Paul Bisson.
Precincts and races to be counted were drawn out of a hat when the Meade Commissioners canvassed the vote on June 7.
Counted was the Democrat presidential race in East Sturgis 1, southeast Piedmont 13, and rural Black Hawk 15. The precinct committeeman race was audited in West Piedmont 11.
Citizen observers present were Bernie Usera, Sturgis, and Anja Carley of Piedmont.
