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Commission completes canvass of primary election

By Toni Milbourne - For the Chronicle | May 20, 2022

Jefferson County Commissioners Jane Tabb, Steve Stolipher, Caleb Hudson and Tricia Jackson work with elections clerk Nikki Painter, as they completed the primary election canvass on Monday. Toni Milbourne

CHARLES TOWN — Jefferson County Commissioners met Monday to complete canvassing of the primary election that was held on May 10.

Along with staff from the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, the commissioners worked through each precinct, voting to accept or reject provisional ballots from Election Day.

Commissioners Jane Tabb, Steve Stolipher, Caleb Hudson and Tricia Jackson completed the canvass. Commissioner Clare Ath was not available to attend canvassing.

After reviewing approximately 72 provisional ballots, the commissioners accepted 55 of those ballots, as well as six additional absentee ballots. For the most part, reasons for rejecting ballots ranged from the voter not being registered, to the voter voting outside of their precinct, outside of their party or not in the correct county. A total of 61 ballots were accepted for addition to the election night number.

“No races were within the realm of being changed,” said Nikki Painter, elections clerk for the county.

The numbers within the county changed from 7,866 to 7,926 for total ballots cast, increasing the overall percentage of registered voters actually participating in the election from 19.52 percent to 19.67 percent.

Jefferson County Commission races in the Charles Town District and Shepherdstown District had competition on the Republican primary ballot. Following the canvass, Clare Ath reached a total of 2,358 votes to competition David Tabb’s 1,970. Jennifer Krouse garnered 2,740 to Glenn Gargan’s 1,096 for a Shepherdstown District win. In the general election, Ath will face off against Democrat Dale Manuel, while Krouse goes up against Democrat John Doyle, both of whom ran unopposed on the Democrat primary ballot.

Jefferson County Board of Education incumbents Laurie Ogden and Kathy Skinner finished at the top of the list to retain their seats, with Ogden tallying 3,497 votes and Skinner reaching 3,459. Carmen Taylor-Bratton will join them to fill out the board with her 3,387 votes won. Following the top three were challengers Barbara Fuller, who earned 2,685 votes, Tiffani Shephard, with 2,682 votes, Joyce Smith, with 2,536, and Andrea Elliot, who ended the election with 1,703 votes.

Totals for races other than on the local level were completed for Jefferson County and will be certified by the commission at its regularly scheduled meeting to be held Thursday evening. Races that are not specific to Jefferson County only may not be certified until other counties finish their canvassing.