'Every vote counts': Two candidates eke out one-vote wins in county election finale

Gordon Gates called his 19-vote win over Melissa Hahn Moseley for a trustee's seat on the Lincoln Land Community College board "an odd, but ultimately gratifying result."

Gates' slim margin of victory wasn't the only oddity that played out in the Sangamon County Election office where officials tabulated late arriving vote-by-mail and provisional ballots Tuesday.

Vote-by-mail ballots could be received up until Tuesday to count. The ballots, or "qualified returns," would have to have been postmarked by April 4, said Sangamon County clerk Don Gray.

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Developer Dirk McCormick retained his seat on the Riverton school board by picking up a vote from a provisional ballot, breaking an election-day deadlock with another candidate, political newcomer David A. Leach.

Provisional ballots are cast by voters who had a vote-by-mail ballot but surrendered it at a polling place to vote on Election Day. In those cases, election judges would have to make sure the voter did not submit the vote-by-mail ballot along with the provisional ballot.

There was also a late vote-by-mail ballot in the race, but the voter didn't fill in the school board field.

In Loami, there was no change in the vote total, meaning that Steven Lambert has claimed a one-vote win over longtime village president Al Mann.

Springfield Mayor-Elect Misty Buscher saw her vote total finalized over incumbent Mayor Jim Langfelder.

Officially, Buscher had 13,614 votes to Langfelder's 12,841 votes.

City communications director Julia Frevert and Sangamon County Recorder Joshua Langfelder were also on hand to watch the proceedings.

Mayor Langfelder told The State Journal-Register later Tuesday that he would not file for a discovery recount or otherwise contest the election.

Candidates who are within 5% have that process open to them, Gray said. Statutorily, candidates have until April 30 to file for a discovery recount.

Gates, who is the vice chair of the LLCC board, held a nine-vote lead over Hahn Moseley in the District 3 race going into Tuesday. There were 45 qualified late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots and 11 provisional ballots counted Tuesday in that race.

Gates won a four-year term. He has already served one six-year term.

"I enjoyed, actually, watching the sacred rite to run for office and to watch the vote play out here and I'm looking forward to working with my fellow board members," said Gates, a Springfield attorney "The administration, the staff and the students at LLCC, we have big plans and I'm looking forward to them."

Gates said he hoped Hahn Moseley would share her skills and passion for LLCC "in other ways. I certainly welcome her input. It's always nice to talk to someone who's a fan of the college."

McCormick logged 400 votes to 399 for Leach. McCormick was appointed to his seat on the Riverton school board two years ago. He will serve a four-year term.

Joseph Betz, the school board's treasurer, and newcomer Misty Anderson were the top vote getters in the four-person field.

"I think this a reminder if you have a preference, you need to vote," McCormick said Tuesday. "I also appreciate Mr. Leach throwing his hat into the ring."

Lambert, the vice president for inclusive enrollment at Blackburn College, had 84 votes to 83 for Mann.

Mann, who is retired from construction, has served as village president for 15 years.

Lambert said the village's high voter turnout reflected "the energy and the care people have for the community. We're excited for everybody because it was a healthy election that we really needed."

It is the first time Lambert has held political office.

Even though the 120 vote-by-mail and provisional ballots in the city wouldn't have turned the election, Buscher said she wanted to watch history play out and conceded she had "butterflies in my stomach" watching it.

"I'm not going to lie. I talked to the clerk's office every day (about the number of incoming ballots)," Buscher admitted.

Gray said Tuesday's process went smoothly.

"It's important to ensure that all those who have cast a qualified ballot have that opportunity for it to be recorded," he said. "This is the conclusion to that process, making sure these late arriving vote-by-mail ballots and provisionals are properly treated and handled and added to the returns.

"Every vote does count. The manner in which every opportunity is conducted for those (ballots) to be processed properly is important and we take that very seriously in Sangamon County."

Gray said his next step is to bring together cumulative outcomes of every race into the official certification document which will be presented to the State Board of Elections as finalized results.

"We'll hopefully have that done within a few days," he said.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Sangamon County election officials finalized voting tallies Tuesday