STURGIS, S.D. – It was a very close race for three seats on the Meade 46-1 School Board in the Tuesday primary – so much so, a recount is possible.
Along with that, some numbers that weren’t on the Secretary of State’s election portal.
The Secretary of State’s website as of Tuesday morning has the top three vote getters as Joseph Urbaniak, Darrel Vig and Sheila Trask. However, Meade County Auditor Lisa Schieffer reported to KBHB the top three vote getters were Urbaniak, Vig and Holly Good. The discrepancy is because the Boulder Canyon and Whitewood votes are from a different county. The state’s system showed Meade County only. Schieffer says she asked the state about entering the numbers manually, but they fear they system wouldn’t accept it and it could mess up the numbers.
Schieffer’s numbers, which include votes from Boulder Canyon and Whitewood, show Urbaniak with 1,234 votes, Vig with 1,250 votes and Good with 1,130 votes. Trask has 1,081 and Terry Koontz has 1,033.
Schieffer tells KBHB the dilemma:
“Meade County is contracted to do optical scan ballots with Meade 46-1 to run the election in just Meade County. There are two precincts that do paper ballots in Lawrence County that are ran by the school district. We had to report our figures on the SOS site. We then had to manually add the Lawrence County numbers to ours. We have a call into the State to see if they want us to merge all the numbers which will then skew the Meade County numbers by adding Lawrence in or if they want it stand alone. That is why there is a difference.”
In other words, Schieffer’s numbers are correct pending an election canvass and possible recount. If everything stays official, Vig, Urbaniak and Good will win the three seats on the Meade 46-1 School Board.
