Recount confirms Hall victory over Githens; but 17 ballots remain lost

A recount in the election for Indiana Statehouse District 62 confirmed Dave Hall as the winner, which also means Bloomington resident Penny Githens will remain a county commissioner.

David Henry, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party, who had petitioned for the recount, said the manual recount in Brown and portions of Monroe and Jackson counties widened Hall’s margin of victory to 74. Before the recount, Hall’s lead was 40 votes.

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The final tally presented Tuesday morning showed Hall with 13,037 votes and Githens with 12,963. That’s a margin of 0.3% among the 26,000 votes that were cast.

The recount added in some ballots that were not counted on Election Day and removed some absentee ballots that had initially been counted, but Henry said the changes didn’t affect the overall outcome of the race.

The election in Brown County was marred by the loss of 17 paper ballots that Indiana State Police could not collect when they impounded ballots after Henry petitioned for the recount. The votes were counted, because they were scanned on Election Day, but Henry said it was “highly unusual” for the Brown County Clerk’s office to not be able to produce the paper ballots.

While Henry said the recount did not produce the outcome local Democrats wanted, they did want to make sure that every legal vote that was cast was counted.

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Henry said Githens’ candidacy also showed Democrats will be able to compete in District 62 in 2024.

District 62, which like other statehouse districts was redrawn this summer, includes much of central and southern Monroe County along with all of Brown and part of Jackson counties. Republicans hold supermajorities in both Indiana chambers, meaning they can pass legislation without Democrats even being present.

The Indiana Election Division staff could not be reached Tuesday. Phone messages left for Co-Director Angela Nussmeyer, and Co-Legal counsels Valerie Warycha and Matthew Kochevar, were not returned.

Local Democrats also have asked for a recount in the Benton Township Board election in which Republican Jake Dodds finished third, edging out Democrat Hans Kelson by four votes, out of more than 2,500 cast among four candidates. The top three finishers are named to the board. Henry said Tuesday results of that recount could be available later this week.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Dave Hall District 62 victory over Penny Githens confirmed by recount