Tight races will bring an automatic recount

Only about 10 percent of registered voters in St. Francois County voted in the election Tuesday.

About 2,900 individuals out of the 27,830 registered voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide school board and city council races and a couple of municipal issues on the ballot.

St. Francois County Clerk Mark Hedrick said turnout was high in some areas and low in others. Turnout across the county varied from four percent in two Park Hills precincts to 47 percent in Leadington. Iron Mountain Lake and Bismarck also had high voter turnouts with about 30 percent of registered voters going to the polls.

Hedrick said turnout at Park Hills was low because Central didn’t have a school board race and there were only contested council races in Wards 2 and 4.

Besides the low voter turnout, Hedrick said the election went well. He said there were a number of close races a candidate won by just a few votes.

He said they will automatically recount elections – while the verification team is in to check the results – for anyone who lost by one percent or one to two votes. He decided to do it automatically out of courtesy with results available late today. Normally, a candidate would have seven days to request a recount.

Hedrick will recount votes cast in the North County school board race, the Park Hills Ward 2 race, the Bismarck Ward 1 Alderman race, the Desloge Ward 1 Alderman race, Iron Mountain Lake Ward 2 Alderman race, and the Bismarck School District.

Candidates have 30 days to go to court to contest the election results.