Provisional Ballots Present No Change in Mayor Race

The general election may be over, but a large number of provisional ballots left one key race undetermined in Muskingum County.

All votes are now counted for, but Director at the Muskingum County Board of Elections, Timothy Thompson, said the provisional ballots presented no change in the race for Mayor of Zanesville. Following election day, there were still 418 provisional ballots left to be counted, and of those, only 355 were valid. The board of elections had 10 days to count those votes and released the final report Tuesday.

The race for Mayor of Zanesville goes to incumbent Jeff Tilton, who defeated his republican opponent, Rob Sharrer, by 160 votes. Tilton received a total of 2,623 votes, to Sharrer’s 2,463 votes.

“Originally the mayor race was established on an unofficial count and for the next two weeks, or 10 days officially, we had to check the provisional ballots to make sure those are valid ballots,” Thompson said. “The process just takes a while going through the signatures, making sure everything is correct on the provisional ballot envelopes.”

Thompson said the provisional ballots didn’t have an effect on any other races either. For a complete list of results, you can visit the board elections website at boe.muskingumcounty.org.