Wausau Pilot & Review
Wausau City Council Dist. 1 candidate John Kroll is requesting a recount in a race decided by just two votes.
In the April 5 election, Kroll received 469 votes to Carol Lukens’ 471, the slimmest margin in all of Wausau’s council races. There were three write-in ballots cast, according to the Marathon County Election Results page.
Candidates could not petition for a recall until Monday’s canvass was complete.
“In a race decided by little room for error, any discrepancies that may have occurred during ballot reprinting or transposing may change the election results,” Kroll said, in his April 13 recount petition.
On April 5 the polling site for Dist. 1, Pilgrim Lutheran Church, ran out of ballots due to an “unexpectedly high turnout,” Marathon County Clerk Kim Trueblood said. As more ballots were printed and delivered to Pilgrim, the tabulator also malfunctioned.
“The tabulator had a glitch and would not accept the paper we used to re-print, so more ballots were delivered that were printed on different paper, which worked great,” Trueblood said, in a Facebook post.
The recount will begin at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, April 14 at City Hall, 407 Grant St., Wausau. Candidates have the right to be present and to be represented by counsel to observe and challenge the votes cast as well as the board of canvassers’ decisions at the election.
