By Kristin Bednarski
Sun staff
Clermont County Board of Elections members certified the official election results Nov. 27.
Board members Tim Rudd, Paul Campbell, Rick Combs and Dave Lane were all in attendance at the meeting, as well as deputy director Mike Keeley and director Judy Miller.
Miller passed out the official results along with the breakdown of absentee, in-person, and provisional ballots.
“Everything went smoothly and everything balanced,” Miller said about the official results.
Miller said after counting the provisional and the remaining absentee ballots, results remained consistent with the unofficial results posted on election night.
Miller said results for the close races, including a bond issue and tax levy for Batavia Local School District and an operational levy for Milford Exempted Village School District, remained the same.
Batavia Local School District had more votes in their favor after provisional ballots were counted with 116 provisional voters in favor of the levy and 64 opposed to the levy. In total, 2,638, or 50.92 percent, of voters were in favor of the levy and 2,543, or 49.08 percent, of voters were opposed to the levy.
Results for the Milford Exempted Village School District operational levy also did not change after provisional and additional absentee ballots were counted.
Two-hundred and forty-eight provisional voters were in favor of the levy and 213 provisional voters were opposed to the levy, however in total, 11,208, or 50.57 percent, of voters opposed the levy while 10,955 voters, or 49.43 percent, of voters were in favor of the levy.
The new results for the close races did not bring the official results close enough to qualify either issue for an automatic recount, with the difference in votes still more than one-half of one percent.
“No recounts, which allows us to go right into the post-election audit,” Miller said.
Miller requested they begin the post election audit Dec. 4, and she said it would take approximately four days to hand count ballots. She said they will be counting the presidential race, a supreme court race and one other local race.
Miller said after counting all of the provisional and remaining absentee ballots, the total turnout for the 2012 November general election jumped from 70.92 percent to 73.11 percent of 132,697 registered voters in Clermont County.
She said the election went smoothly and she was pleased with the hard work her staff put in to make it that way.
“The staff did an exceptional job,” Miller said.
To view the official election results, or for more information about the election, visit www.clermontelections.org.