Live From the Election Board

Incumbent Jack Messer earned the highest total of votes in Tuesday's election for council member at-large with 4,106 votes tallied. Fellow Democrat John Gonder recorded one fewer nods, with 4,105. Republican Kevin Zurschmeide will join the pair on the nine-member council.

Three Democratic Party incumbents were returned to office along with newcomers Pat McLaughlin, Bob Caesar, and Diane Benedetti. Jeff Gahan, Steve Price, and Dan Coffey, all Democrats, return to office.

Doug England made easy work of his opponent and will be sworn in this January to a third term as Mayor of New Albany.

Eight Democrats will join incumbent Republican Kevin Zurschmeide on New Albany's City Council after edging Democrat James Hollis for the final at-large seat. Zurschmeide took 3,772 votes to Hollis's 3,632.


BULLETIN: The City Council lineup is set with incumbents Dan Coffey (D-1), Steve Price (D-3), Jeff Gahan (D-6), and Jack Messer (D-At-large) returned to office. Joining them will be John Gonder, the leading vote-getter in the at-large race, Diane McCartin Benedetti (D-5), and Bob Caesar (D-2). We await the cliffhanger between Zurschmeide (R-At-large) and Hollis (D-At-large). WNAS reports Zurschmeide edged Hollis.

The judge at Ekin Avenue is having problems closing the voting, so District 5 is still up in the air with precincts 9 and 10 still to report. Bliss is hanging in there.

Doug England (D) is the mayor-elect. Marcey Wisman (D) is returned as city clerk.

7:02 Italics means the counting is over in that race. As of the moment, Steve Price, Dan Coffey, and Bob Caesar are elected. The smell of a Democratic sweep is in the air...Mr. Gahan is in a fight, but safer than incumbent Republican Kevin Zurschmeide, who trail the third Democrat in the at-large race with only four precincts to go.

With 34 of 34 precincts reporting 100% of precincts

County Clerk Linda Moeller provides the preliminary but not quite "official" numbers, by precinct, for your analysis, at http://www.floydcounty.in.gov/2007electionprecinct.htm.

Our apologies for leaving "bad" numbers up for more than four hours. The "facts" were provided, but the margins were incomplete.

6:36 p.m. First "official" results are in, with 7 precincts reporting. WNAS reports that Doug England will return to the mayor's office by a 200-vote margin. But here are the early official numbers.

England with 56.86% of the vote out of 1,261 votes.
Gonder leads in the at-large race, followed by Messer and Hollis, all Democrats.
Coffey has 372 votes in D1
No votes yet for D2
Price 48.92%, Scharlow 47.84% with a margin of 4 votes.
Benedetti leads Bliss in D5 by 54.64% of the vote.
No reports in D4 or D6
Wisman leads with 63.86% of the vote.

This is with 18% of the precincts reporting.

6:28 p.m. We are waiting for the very first reports. Bob Snook says he expected to have all the results by now. Mr. Snook is here reporting to the Calumet Club for the Republicans...we had met before and he reminds me that John Gonder and Ruthanne Wolfe credit (blame?) him for their having met.

Great story being told as we wait. Chairman Lohmeyer is telling war stories from four decades ago.

In the context of close elections (the recent sheriff race, and perhaps tonight's races), Bill told us how he has personal experience with it all. Seems that 40 years ago this week Bill went on the radio to declare victory in the race for city judge, having defeated the late Basil (Bud) Lorch by 397 votes. Yet, on the way home in the car he hears that Mr. Lorch has been declared the winner.

We won't go into the details tonight, but the case of Lorch v. Lohmeyer went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court where, by a 3-2 party line vote, Al Gore...oops, Bill Lohmeyer was denied a victory and Mr. Lorch assumed the office.

Linda Moeller, County Court Clerk, is the big cheese over this operation, along with the Election Board. That board consists of 2 Democrats and 1 Republican who, with the clerk run the election. Bill Lohmeyer is chairman, Terry Ginkins is the other Democrat, and Jimmy Hancock serves to keep things kosher for the GOP.

That board's composition is determined by how Floyd County voted in the latest election for Secretary of State. Last time out, Floyd voted for the Democrat and even though the Democrat did not win statewide, that sets the makeup of the local board. The last few elections were "run" by a majority-Republican board of election.

Linda, as could be expected, has been very good about welcoming the media into the fray. Although none of the accredited media nor this blogger are permitted into the inner sanctum, we have been made welcome.

Mrs. Moeller, of necessity, is not on the second floor, but rather in the lobby of the building to assist in the "recovery" of the ballots, etc.

We're counting down with the Election Board at the City-County Building. We'll again post from newest to oldest. One longtime observer of the election scene says the numbers are small enough to be different from the regular municipal race with an incumbent. Those are usually high numbers, by tradition to vote out the "bums" (his word, not mine).

Another expert who ought to know has indicated that our earlier prediction of 8,800 total voters may not be very far off.

In any case, it's no longer time for predictions. It's time for the counting.

Here's how it's going to work. First, the election board will direct its technical people to post partial results as they come in. Only later will we have precinct-by-precinct totals.

To join the party live, log on to http://www.floydcounty.in.gov/ for real-time results.