Cwerner May Ask For School Vote Recount With 2-Vote Spread

With the spread now narrowed to a two-vote difference, school board incumbent Beverly Cwerner said on Thursday she is considering asking for a vote recount of results that led the county clerk's office as the third winner in last Wednesday's school election.

 The school district website now puts Shah as the winner with 1,193 votes, compared with 1,191 for Cwerner.

Two other candidates, incumbent Susan McGowan and Linda Wooldridge, were decisively elected to two of the three available board seats with 1,712 and 1,419 votes respectively. The proposed tax levy to support the 2011-12 school budget also was approved on election night, 2,451 to 1,840.

Cwerner said on Thursday she feels she owes it to her supporters to seek a guarantee that the vote count is accurate, especially since the vote count was revised again following Monday's certified results showing Shah in the lead.

She noted part of her reason was a change again in vote count. This time, Cwerner said on Friday that she was told the second change in votes earlier this week was because of absentee ballots that supposedly had not been counted.

The county clerk's office said on Monday that a count of 119 provisional votes had put the official tally at 1,190 votes for Shah, and 1,186 votes for Cwerner.

The first, unofficial count after the April 27 put Cwerner in the lead, with 1163 votes, compared with 1,146 for Shah.

However, at that time school administrator Nick Markarian cautioned that the 17-vote differential made the election too close to call that night.

On Tuesday, Shah in her victory, but said that she was aware that Cwerner had up to two weeks to ask for a recount.

Cwerner said that she feels that Shah is qualified to serve as board member, but indicated she wants an accurate count.

Voters approved a $74,368,937 tax levy to support next year's school budget that is a 2.08 percent increase above this year's tax levy.

The new board members are scheduled be sworn in at the Monday, May 9 Board of Education meeting, set for 7 p.m. at the