GF recounts won’t be known till late November

Automatic Recounts are planned in Grand Forks County in the race for Commission and Home Rule issues.

Bob Rost led voting in the commission race with 22.77% of the tally.  Kimberly Hagen was second with 19.27%.  Mark Rustad was third with 15.52% – but he was only 27 votes ahead of fourth-place finisher Lon Kvasager.  Commission Chair Tom Falck was 5th.  The top three are seated on the board.

Recounts are also expected in the question on Home Rule which won by 20 votes.  The request of a half-cent sales tax was defeated by 21 votes.

County Auditor Deb Nelson says “the recount for the county races cannot take place till after the county canvassing board meets Nov. 21^st, and at that time, if results don’t change and it’s still an automatic recount, we have to schedule it within eight days of that.”

In the District 43 House race, Republican Eric Murphy and Democratic Incumbent Zac Ista were the top two vote-getters, but Democratic incumbent Mary Adams was three votes behind Ista, forcing an automatic recount.

For that race, Nelson said, “we have to wait until after the state canvassing board meets Nov. 23, then they have to notify me if there is a recount, and if there is one, we will probably do them on Nov. 28.”

More than 19,000 ballots were cast in Grand Forks County…a turnout rate of 35.84 percent.