No recount sought in narrow Porter County Council race as Dems prepare to take over
NWI Times
November 19, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/no-recount-sought-in-narrow-porter-county-council-race-as/article_58a96a28-4b3b-5b57-bc1e-f5e806a14946.html
VALPARAISO — Republican Porter County Councilman Andy Bozak said he will not seek a recount in his 15-vote defeat to returning Democratic Councilman Bob Poparad.
"The people of Porter County have been through enough garbage," he said, referring to the delays and other problems with the local midterm election. "I don't know a recount would do anything anyway."
Bozak will have served on the council for two years when he wraps up his term at the year's end. He was elected in January 2017 by party officials to replace Jim Biggs, who had resigned to return to the Porter County Board of Commissioners.
Bozak thanked Poparad for running a clean campaign and said he believes Poparad will do a good job on the council. Bozak said he will remain available to help the council or the public, to whom he gave his cellphone number after taking office.
"It remains out there," he said of his number.
While he plans to seek elected office again at some point, Bozak said he will first offer to serve as an appointment to a county board to continue giving back.
"I want to stay involved and continue to help," he said.
Bozak was serving on the Burns Harbor Town Council when he was elected to the County Council.
Noon Tuesday is the deadline for candidates to file a challenge or recount of the recent midterm election, and party chairs have until noon Nov. 26, said Porter County Election Board President David Bengs.
Now time to figure out what went wrong
Poparad was among the few people who stuck around for the nearly four hours it took Friday afternoon for county election officials to wrap up the final vote from last week's trouble-ridden midterm election.
"I want to thank my supporters and want to thank Andy for running a nice, clean campaign," he said.
Bozak said Friday the race shows every vote does count.
"It couldn't be more true," he said.
Poparad's victory helped Democrats take back control of the County Council.
The final vote count is posted on a link from the county's website at porterco.org.
The final vote count came one week after the initial tally was wrapped up three days late as a result of numerous problems with the election, including 12 polling places opening late, a shortage of poll workers and accusations of mishandled ballots.
Secretary of State Connie Lawson agreed last week to assist Porter County election officials in figuring out what went wrong and put in place processes that ensure future elections run far more smoothly.
Drew Wenger, chairman of the Valparaiso Democratic Committee, said he would prefer an investigation of the local elections by the Indiana State Police.
"Instead of more political involvement in this chaos, we actually need less," he said. "We need an investigation handled locally by the Indiana State Police branch in Lowell, not by an Indianapolis politician."
The Porter County Board of Commissioners has called on the county election board to seek an investigation into the election by the Indiana Secretary of State's Election Division and Indiana State Police.
The commissioners also have called for the immediate resignation of Republican Election Board member and Porter County Clerk Karen Martin, who has been held largely to blame for the election problems.
Democratic Porter County Council members Dan Whitten and Jeremy Rivas made the same request.
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