JOPLIN, Mo. — The recount of a Joplin’s April City Council race is final and the numbers changed… a little bit.
What had been a 13 vote win turned into an 18 vote win for current council member Josh Detar.
Totals in Newton County did not change at all. In Jasper County, a machine recount meant Brian Evans lost three votes while Josh Detar gained two. That doesn’t change the election’s outcome which put Detar into one of three general council seats.
“I had talked to the people who do our equipment uh and they specifically said they have never had an election overturned due to a machine recount. But i think it is important for a candidate to have that option to give that reassurance that our election system does work,” said Jasper Co. Clerk, Charlie Davis.
Newton County went through about a thousand ballots and wrapped up that recount just after 1 PM. But Jasper County had nearly 4,000 ballots, which took about six hours to recount.