Recount following the April 2 Election began Friday morning at 9 in Greene County

Update:

The Friday recount did not change the results of the Willard mayor race. Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller said that "the electronic tabulator accurately tabulated the result." Samuel Snider told KSMU he plans to ask for a run-off election. In the Fair Grove Ward 2 Aldermen race, the recount verified 52 votes for write-in candidate Kelly Petty and 43 votes for candidate, Jeffrey Danderson.

Original story:

Every Friday after an election, the Greene County Clerk’s Office, as required by state statute, conducts a recount of no less than 5% of randomly-drawn precincts in the election the preceding Tuesday.

Friday, the clerk’s office did that for the General Municipal Election on April 2, but it also held recounts for the Willard mayor race, which ended in a 349-349 tie between Samuel Snider and Troy Smith.

A recount was also done for the Ward 2 Alderman race in Fair Grove where there was a mix-up with ballots due to previous ward changes.

"There were some streets that we discovered, after they changed the wards, were not properly put into the ward, and so there's some voters that received the wrong ballot," said Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller.

Michele Skalicky

When the Fair Grove Ward 2 Alderman recount was finished, write-in candidate Kelly Petty was still ahead of incumbent Jeffrey Danderson by a few votes. As of 10:30 a.m. Friday, with precincts still to count, the Willard race remained a tie. Overseas and military ballots had until noon to arrive at the clerk’s office.

Schoeller said a verification board will approve the recount. Unofficial results will be announced Friday, and the results will be certified on Monday.

A post-test of the election equipment took place Wednesday, and Schoeller said they didn't find any problems.

Schoeller said it's all about election integrity.

"We want them (the public) to know that if they have questions, that's why we do the testing we did yesterday, the hand counting we do today," he said. "It's always open to the public to come and see...because we want to be transparent. We want to be open."