By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Candidates Michael Berges and Nathan Leiker were certified as the winners of Ellis County Commission seats after a canvass Monday morning.
Both candidates are presumptive commissioners elect, as there are no Democratic challengers on the ballot in November's general election.
The canvass board accepted 94 provisional ballots Monday morning. None of race outcomes were changed by the additional ballots.
Berges wins the District 1 commission seat on a vote of 848-835 over Jim Pfeifer. Berges lead Pfeifer by nine votes going into the canvass.
In the race for District 3, Nathan Leiker was the highest vote-getter with 764 votes over opponents Chris McGowne (639), Randy Marintzer (324) and incumbent Joe LeRoux (286).
"I had a good lead coming in," Leiker said. "I'm appreciative of it and glad it's done."
Berges and Leiker will take office in January.
"I just look forward to serving the people, the community and the county," Leiker said.
He added, "I would like to see an increased focus on our roads and bridges and creating the infrastructure to grow our county."
He said he looks forward to diving in and finding out where the greatest needs are in the county.
One-hundred thirty-two provisional ballots were cast, Bobbi Dreiling, Ellis County Clerk, said. Seventy-five ballots were accepted because of address changes. Nine ballots were accepted because of a name change. Seven were accepted because of DMV errors.
Three ballots were accepted because people did not get or chose not to return their mail ballots. One ballot was accepted because the voter turned 18 on the day of the election but had registered before the registration deadline.
Thirty-six ballots were rejected, because the voters were not registered in Ellis County. One ballot was rejected for lack of voter ID. One provisional ballot envelope was empty when it was opened.
County's are required to audit of a percentage of their precincts. The hand count returned no discrepancies, Dreiling siad.
Elections workers were required to audit additional precincts because the narrow margin in the state treasurer's race. That also resulted in zero discrepancies, Dreiling said.
The Ellis County Commission District 1 race was also audited because it was within a 1 percent margin. That audit also came up with zero discrepancies, Dreiling said.
A full set of Ellis County primary results can be found at the Ellis County website.