Erie County voters chose Republicans Steve Shoffner for county commissioner and Richard Jeffrey for county auditor in Tuesday’s general election, while rejecting a Sandusky City Schools operating levy, according to unofficial results from the Erie County Board of Elections reported by Firelands Current.
Shoffner defeated Democrat Mindy Kayl for the commissioner seat, taking 16,790 votes, or 55.60 percent, to Kayl’s 13,407 votes, or 44.40 percent, Firelands Current reported from the board’s unofficial totals. The commissioner term begins Jan. 1, 2027. In the auditor’s race, Jeffrey received 17,200 votes, or 57.21 percent, to Democrat Paul Meisel’s 12,863 votes, or 42.79 percent.
All 62 of the county’s precincts had reported in the board’s results, which were generated Tuesday evening. The totals remain unofficial, and the board of elections must still complete its official canvass and certify the results before the winners are final.
Sandusky voters turned down the school district’s Issue 2, a 4.9-mill additional operating levy, by a margin of 3,414 votes for to 4,236 against, according to the unofficial results reported by Firelands Current. The district had projected the levy would raise about $3.4 million a year for daily operations, including staffing, instruction and transportation.
In a post-election response reported by Firelands Current, the Sandusky district said administrators will review the budget and develop recommendations for the school board, and that further reductions to staffing, programs, services and other operating expenses may be necessary. Voters in the Margaretta school district also rejected a bond issue on Tuesday, according to WLKR.
Erie County also split narrowly in the statewide race drawing the most attention. In the U.S. Senate contest, Democrat Sherrod Brown carried the county with 15,343 votes to Republican Jon Husted’s 15,021, according to Associated Press figures — a margin of just 322 votes that underscored how closely divided the Lake Erie county remains.
What happens next is the official canvass. The Erie County Board of Elections will review provisional and outstanding absentee ballots and certify the Nov. 3 results in the coming days, at which point the commissioner and auditor outcomes and the levy defeats become final. NewsForce247 will update this story when certification is complete.
Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons