BOSO

MOUNDSVILLE — After a tight race for seats on Moundsville City Council, a candidate who lost by just 10 votes is seeking a recount.

Carl Boso, one of five candidates for two at-large seats on the council, received 919 votes to David Haynes’ 929, allowing Haynes to keep his seat. However, Boso said the narrow margin of defeat coupled with his distrust of voting machines led him to put up a $300 bond for a recount of the votes.

“I think it’ll change. I’ve been around here my whole life, and every year, it changes,” Boso said. “They automatically count them with the machine, so I asked for a recount by hand. They wanted to do a machine (count) again, and I said it would give them the same result as before.”

Marshall County Clerk Jan Pest said the recount would be done by hand, with several teams of people counting the paper ballots.

“We are having 12 of my poll workers come in, three teams of four people,” Pest said. “Two people read the ballot, and the other two have separate tally sheets that they both tally, then they compare them to make sure. It’s just time consuming.”

However, Pest said the recount can be stopped prematurely if Boso takes the lead while the results are being counted, leading to his election. To prevent this, Haynes also posted the bond for a recount. Pest sent notice of the recount to all candidates, and she said only Haynes responded.

“If Carl Boso … were ahead of (Haynes) at any point, and stops the count, then it’s done,” Pest said. “I even called the Secretary of State’s Office — if you’re ahead in a recount, and the other person hasn’t reserved their right to a recount, you can lose.”

Haynes, who said he didn’t understand why the system worked that way, said he was at first willing to let the recount go on as planned before deciding to throw his bid in to make sure each vote was counted.

“At first, I was going to roll the dice. If he won, he won — congratulations,” Haynes said. “But they told me if they’re recounting, and I don’t put my money in, if he gets one vote up in the count, he’s the winner. So I had to come up with $300 to put in, and if I still win, I get my money back.”

Other candidates in the council race were Phil Remke, who won an at-large seat with more than 1,300 votes, Nick James and Mark Simms, a sitting councilman who was defeated.