Columbus election race still not decided

COLUMBUS—While all other races in Polk County are pretty much decided, the Town of Columbus Council race still hinges on provisional votes yet to be counted. 

The municipal election was Tuesday, with Columbus having the biggest race, where six people threw their name in the hat for three open council seats. 

While challenger and newcomer Brent Jackson and incumbent Mark Phillips cannot be beaten, the third and fourth place winners are only two votes apart, with five potential votes yet to be counted. 

Jackson received 92 votes, Phillips received 76 votes and incumbent Richard Hall received 71 votes. 

According to the Polk County Board of Elections, there are five outstanding provisional votes in Columbus yet to be counted. 

The board of elections will meet Friday at 8:30 a.m. to count or disregard the five provisional votes. 

A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions about the voter’s eligibility. The provisional voter’s eligibility must be resolved before the vote can count. 

Reasons that a voter must cast a provisional vote include that the voter’s name does not appear on the roll for a given precinct because the voter is not registered or is registered to vote elsewhere; that the voter’s eligibility cannot be established or has been challenged; that the voter requested to vote by absentee ballot but claims to have not received the ballot or the voter’s registration contains inaccurate or outdated information such as the wrong address or misspelled name. 

The board of elections director will do research on the provisional ballots and present the findings at Friday morning’s meeting. The board will then determine whether each provisional will count or have to be disregarded. 

There are a few possibilities of how the winnings can change in Columbus depending on the validity and votes of the provisional ballots. 

Jackson and Phillips are not in jeopardy as they received 92 and 76 votes respectively, although a tie could occur for the second spot if all provisional votes are for Hall and none for Phillips. 

Hall’s third position is in jeopardy as he received 71 votes, compared to Steve E. Christopher’s 69 votes and incumbent Margaret Metcalf’s 68 votes. Either Christopher or Metcalf could surpass Hall depending on the provisional vote count. 

A similar situation occurred in Columbus during the 2017 election. 

Phillips led Jackson unofficially 79-76 prior to three provisional votes being counted in a special meeting in 2017. Phillips ended up winning the race in 2017.