Medina County Board of Elections certifies official election results for general election

MEDINA — No races flipped after all votes were officially recorded in the general election results for Medina County. The Medina County Board of Elections certified the official election results during its meeting on Tuesday. The official results include provisional ballots, which the board of elections approved at a previous meeting. Medina County's voter turnout for the general election was approximately 108,000 people, which is about 80.5 percent of the total registered voters in the county. About 57,000 voters voted early in-person or absentee, around 50,000 people voted on Election Day and there were about 1,000 absentee ballots. The closest race was the Medina Schools levy, which had a difference of 274 votes. It still passed in the official election results with 13,437 residents voting for the levy and 13,163 votes against it. Board of Elections Director Nicole Mickley said there are no required recounts for the election since a difference of 133 votes for Medina Schools' levy was needed to trigger a recount. Another close race was for the Lafayette Township Fire and Rescue District levy. There were 2,312 people who voted for the levy, while 2,042 people voted against it. Also during Tuesday's meeting, the Board of Elections randomly selected which polling locations will be audited for the election. It is required to audit 5 percent of the ballots cast, which is 5,416 ballots. Medina Fire Station No. 1, Chatham Town Hall and Radiant Life Church will be audited, which amounts to 6,257 ballots. The race for president and vice president, U.S. senator and Medina County prosecutor will be audited for those polling locations on Dec. 3. "I know that it was a stressful election, but I think things went really smoothly," Chairwoman Pam Miller said. "Well done to the staff. I heard only positives about the early voting." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.