City and school board election results now official

Tuesday’s election results are now official, and the addition of 70 provisional ballots did not change the outcomes of any Douglas County races.

Friday morning, Douglas County commissioners Jim Flory and Nancy Thellman and Treasurer Paula Gilchrist certified the city and school board election.

They also followed the recommendation of Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew’s office not to count 46 provisional ballots that were cast — 29 of those ballots were mailed advance ballots that were returned undeliverable to the clerk’s office.

Shew said the addition of the provisional ballots did not change the 159-vote margin between Lance Johnson and Price Banks for the third Lawrence City Commission slot. Both candidates actually received the same number of votes among provisional ballots, so Johnson still won by 159 votes.

The county’s closest race was for a Baldwin City Council seat between Tom Farmer and Chris Nichols. Farmer led by seven votes Tuesday night, and the official results bumped his victory to eight votes, Shew said.

The addition of the provisional ballots also bumped the county’s voter turnout to 14 percent from 13.9 percent.