Columbia Third Ward race remains tied

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The tie between Karl Skala and Roy Lovelady remained a tie Monday after a team of bipartisan election judges certified the vote in the Columbia City Council Third Ward race.

Bipartisan judges Beverly Braun and Rodney Davis began Monday's certification process by counting provisional and absentee ballots. Those ballots did not break the tie between Skala and Lovelady due to there being no votes for the third ward.

The team of bipartisan judges then moved on to conducting a hand-count audit of ballots from Columbia's Fifth and Sixth wards and the City of Centralia.

Boone County Clerk, Brianna Lennon says, "when we do our random selection of the precincts that they are going to hand recount, we put all of the names of the precincts in a cup and then they pull random numbers out."

Lennon says there has never been a tie in a City of Columbia election and the process can take time.

"A slow and deliberate process to make sure the numbers on the ballots the paper ballots themselves match the numbers from the unofficial results," Lennon said.

This comes after Tuesday's election ended in a tie of 1,102 votes each for incumbent Karl Skala and Roy Lovelady.

Once the results are certified for the entire municipal election, the candidates can request a recount up to a week after the certification.

If a recount is not requested by the candidates, there are two other options to determine a winner.

Lennon said, "The city would determine whether to hold a special election or the candidates would choose alternative means of drawing lots."

If a winner is not determined during the certification process, the seat for the third ward could end up on the August 2nd election ballot and Karl Skala would hold the seat till then when a winner is determined.

The certification process wrapped up early Monday afternoon and is set to pick back up Tuesday at 7:30 a.m at the Boone County Government Center.