Vitale leads in county commission race

0

A countywide seat currently held by long-serving Champaign County Commissioner Bob Corbett has Nino Vitale in the lead to succeed Corbett after Tuesday’s unofficial election results, according to the board of elections.

Vitale has 6,678 votes and the write-in candidate had 6,466. However, there are still 323 absentee ballots and provisional ballots that are to be counted. The official certification will be held Nov. 22 at 9 a.m.

The commission race can’t be officially called yet due to the number of outstanding ballots and the board of elections’ need to go through the ballots from Tuesday for voter intent on write-in votes, according to board of elections chief Meredith Bodey.

Vitale, a Republican who currently represents the area as a state representative in his final term in Columbus, won the Republican Primary for county commissioner nomination in May. No Democrat filed to run for commissioner in the May Primary and no Independent candidate filed by the May deadline to appear on the November ballot.

Todd Woodruff, a local farmer, auctioneer and business owner, filed a non-partisan letter of intent with the Champaign County Board of Elections to run as a write-in candidate for county commissioner.

Woodruff ran as a political outsider, insisting he is not a politician but is a Republican.

Woodruff posted what appeared to be a concession statement to social media on Wednesday that read, “Well everyone, sounds like it’s over and I lost. I can’t say Thank you enough for all of your support!!!!! I am proud to say I lost being honest and doing it my way. I feel the respect a man earns doing it his way and losing is worth much more than playing games and winning! Sounds like we got beat by 200sh votes. Not bad for a beagle in a horse race?”

Vitale’s name was the only county commission candidate on the ballot. Vitale had contended prior to the election he was the only registered Republican in the race. Vitale posted no statement to social media as of Wednesday morning.

In Champaign County there were 14,537 ballots cast for 55% voter turnout.

Champaign County Auditor Karen T. Bailey was running as an unopposed incumbent in November.

Republican nominee for 85th district state representative Tim Barhorst was the only name on the Nov. 8 ballot in that race.

There were additional local issues and local options on the ballot. The following number only includes ballots counted by Tuesday night:

-Champaign County, natural gas aggregation approved, 4,286 to 3,898

-Champaign County, electric aggregation failed, 4,096 to 4,092 (possibly within 0.25% margin for automatic recount after all ballots are counted)

-North Lewisburg, electric aggregation approved, 268 to 198

-North Lewisburg, Income Tax, Police funding approved, 262 to 226

-City of Urbana 1-A, Liquor Option, Sunday sales approved, 209 to 45

-City of Urbana 2-A, Liquor Option, Sunday sales approved, 405 to 107

-City of Urbana 3-B, Liquor Option, Sunday sales approved, 312 to 133

-Adams Township, Liquor Option, Sunday sales approved, 283 to 151

-Johnson Township, Liquor Option, (location: Top Hat) approved

-Johnson Township, Liquor Option Sunday sales (location: Top Hat) approved

-St. Paris – VVM Foodmart LLC, Liquor Option approved

-St. Paris – VVM Foodmart LLC, Liquor Option Sunday sales approved

-St. Paris, Liquor Option (Location: Valero) approved

-St. Paris, Liquor Option, Sunday sales (Location: Valero) approved

-Northeast Champaign County Fire District, tax levy fire replacement, provide & maintain fire apparatus, appliances, & buildings, approved, 1,097 to 517

-Goshen Township Memorial Park, tax levy maintenance renewal, maintain & improve the park for recreational purposes, approved, 725 to 468

-St. Paris Public Library, tax levy, current expenses renewal approved, 2,295 to 1,202

-Goshen Township, tax levy, fire renewal, provide fire protection, apparatus, appliances, buildings, or sites, approved, 482 to 264

-Harrison Township, tax levy, fire renewal, fire protection, ambulance & emergency medical services, approved, 268 to 101

-Jackson Township, tax levy, fire replacement, maintain fire apparatus, appliances, buildings, or sites, approved, 491 to 303

-Jackson Township, tax levy ambulance replacement, provide ambulance service, approved, 499 to 299

-Urbana Township, tax levy, fire renewal, maintain fire apparatus, appliances, buildings, EMS services, or sites approved, 734 to 381

-Wayne Township, tax levy, roads renewal, repair roads approved, 489 to 284

-Village of St. Paris, tax levy, streets renewal, repair streets approved, 339 to 265

-Village of Mechanicsburg, tax levy, streets replacement, streets, roads, & bridges failed, 225 to 223 (possibly within 0.25% margin for automatic recount after all ballots are counted)

Vitale
https://www.urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2022/11/web1_Vitale-1.jpgVitale

https://www.urbanacitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2022/11/web1_Election-2022Nov-1.jpg
Countywide electric aggregation fails by 4 votes

Staff report

No posts to display