The Ward County Canvassing Board met Monday, June 22, to approve the results of the June 9 primary and local elections, which confirmed the need for a recount to help decide the winner of a seat on the Surrey Park Board.

County Auditor Marisa Haman said a recount is required by state law before a name can be drawn to pick a winner. The county has up to four days to set a recount and up to eight days for the recount board to conclude its action. The recount board consists of the chairman of the Ward County Commission, state’s attorney and county recorder.

The Surrey Park Board had two open seats to fill on June 9. There were 57 ballots listing a write-in choice, and Jonathan Yearian was the top vote-getter with four votes. Receiving three votes were Brenda Quist, Kirsten Kitchens, Adam Dickinson, Steve Johnson and Jessica Aho.

If Yearian and the individual who comes out on top after the recount and drawing decline to serve, the board can appoint to fill the vacancies.

JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Ward County Auditor Marisa Haman programs an election machine to produce an updated election information after the Ward County Canvassing Board approved the addition of set-aside ballots Monday, June 22. At right is Jim Rostad, who represented the county commission on the canvassing board.

A Surrey City Council seat also was decided by write-in during the election. Tiffany Wheeler received 42 votes, joining Brady Morgan and Tammy Hein-Sack as top vote-getters for the three open seats. Morgan received 176 votes and Hein-Sack 148. Morgan and Wheeler are incumbents.

In Berthold, Mayor Steve Ibach won reelection with 15 write-in votes, which is a few more write-in votes than he was elected by four years ago. Ibach, who initially ran and was elected in 2018, said he again will accept the vote of the people.

“I will keep doing it, but if somebody else wants to put an effort into running a campaign, I will bow out,” Ibach said. “I really would like somebody to step up but it doesn’t seem to be happening.”

Ibach served a number of years on the council before becoming mayor.

Other races being decided by write-ins include a council seat in Burlington, a council seat in Carpio, two council seats in Douglas and two park board seats in Kenmare. In Makoti, three candidates were on the ballot for three seats, but nine write-ins for Melissa Rensch-Taylor were enough to edge out one of the contenders by a single vote and secure her the third seat. Joan Stafslien and Michael Larson also were elected with 17 and 12 votes, respectively.

The canvassing board certified 8,062 Ward County voters in the election, up three from unofficial results released June 9. The three additional votes came with the acceptance of three set-aside ballots from voters who did not provide adequate identification at the polls but followed up with verification.

Due to a change in state law, absentee ballots must be received before election day to be counted. Formerly, canvassing boards would count mailed ballots that were postmarked before election day. Ward County received 16 absentee ballots after polls closed that were unable to be counted.

Another change in state law requires a post-election audit in each county of a federal contest, statewide contest, legislative contest and county contest from a polling place randomly chosen by the Secretary of State.

Audits review election documents to verify voter check-ins match the number of ballots cast and manually tabulate ballot results from 5% of the ballots cast in the polling location, which must be at least 25 ballots but no more than 300 ballots, according to Secretary of State information.

In Ward County, the audit focused on Minot Municipal Auditorium ballots.

Haman said the audit looked at the four selected races on 129 ballots and found no election discrepancies.