Hartley, Iowa — There is still a glimmer of hope for the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Community School District’s $16.5-million bond issue that HMS District voters narrowly defeated in an election held April 4th. A recount of the votes in that election has been requested.
April Hengeveld was the Bond Committee Chair, and is now the Chair of the Recount Committee. She says that, with such a squeaky close vote ~ the meaure failed by just 7 votes ~ the only responsible thing to do is make sure all the votes were tabulated accurately.
Hengeveld says a petition calling for a recount was submitted to O’Brien County Auditor Barb Rohwer’s office last week.
Hengeveld says that Rohwer, and the HMS Recount Committee have each named one member to the County Recount Committee, which will conduct the recount, and that Rohwer will be watching over the process.
KIWA talked to O’Brien County Auditor Barb Rohwer, who tells us voters in the bond issue filled out paper ballots that were then counted by machine. She says that, at this point, she’s not certain if the County Recount Committee will decide on another machine recount, or a manual recount.
Rohwer tells KIWA that one additional Absentee Ballot was received the morning after the election, and it was a “no” vote, which was added to the vote totals. The final total was 904 yes votes, and 615 no votes, for a vote total of 1,519. A 60% margin of yes votes was needed for the measure to pass, meaning that the bond issue fell just 7 votes short of being approved. So while there is still a glimmer of hope for the issue, it is a faint glimmer heading into Wednesday’s recount.
The recount of the votes cast in the April 4th Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Bond Issue is scheduled for 2:00 pm Wednesday, April 19th at the Auditor’s Office in the O’Brien County Courthouse at Primghar.
