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With A Razor-Thin Margin, Missouri’s 135th House Race May Get A Recount

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KSMU archives
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One race in Greene County could be headed to a recount.

In the race for Missouri’s 135th district seat, which covers parts of central and east Springfield, the margin was too narrow to call early Wednesday morning between Republican Incumbent Steve Helms and Democratic Challenger Betsy Fogle.

With 97% of Greene County precincts reporting results, Fogle had 48.08% and Helms had 47.88% of the vote.  Greene Party candidate Vicke Kepling had about 4% of the vote.

Greene County Clerk said there was still a chance it might not need a recount—that’s because when he spoke to KSMU very early Wednesday morning, there were still a few absentee ballots that needed to be counted.

But if it does go to a recount, the earliest the results could be known is Friday, Schoeller said.

Fogle said she woke up on Election Day and played out every scenario she could think of in her mind.

“And this was not one of the scenarios I anticipated.  But what this tells me is that every Saturday morning that we got up and knocked doors, and every call that we made really made a difference in this district,” Fogle said.

We were unable to reach incumbent Steve Helms for comment.    As of early Wednesday morning, Fogle was ahead of Helms by only 34 votes. You can see the Greene County results here.