Oran to hold special election for mayor

Tom Urhahn and Ron Diebold Jr., the only two candidates for Oran mayor, finished Tuesday with 172 votes each.

Melissa Pobst, in the processing of transitioning her job as Oran City Clerk, stepped back into action Wednesday to help figure out next steps. Today, Pobst meets with Scott County Clerk Rita Milam to set a date for a special election.

Milam said a special election would happen in three weeks, "at the soonest."

She said it would cost the city approximately $500.

Urhahn and Diebold were given another option as a tie-breaker. The state allows a drawing or coin toss to settle the election impasse.

"We didn’t even knock that around. We just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s not professional. That’s not how you run a business, that’s not how you run a city,'" said Diebold, owner of Diebold Auto Body. "It’s in the people’s hands. It’s fair to both parties and fair to all the citizens of the town, also."

Diebold said he suggested the board of aldermen split the tie, but Urhahn nixed the idea.

City Attorney David Summers said Oran must follow Missouri State statute 115.517 in determining the winner.

"I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a tie," Summers said. "But that doesn’t mean anything, obviously. We’ve got three going on in Southeast Missouri cities — the city of Miner and Wyatt."

He is not the attorney for the two other cities.

In Delta, write-in votes were certified for the city council’s Ward 2 seat.

Of the 20 write-in votes, Lowell Fish received 12; eight other individuals received one vote each.

Write-in votes for Oak Ridge town board elected Edward Huffman, who had two votes, with the remaining 10 votes divided equally among individuals.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark said voting records reflect the names of everyone in each election who received write-in votes.

"Who the votes went to is a matter of public record. We don’t have them listed by precinct," she said. People curious about seeing full election results can do so at her Jackson office.

"They would come into our office and sign a register showing that they looked at it," she said. The registration is required by law to protect the validity of election results, which are kept in a vault.

General election information is posted online by Cape Girardeau County at http://www.showme.net/~capegadm/results.htm and Scott County at http://www.scottcountymo.com/EL30_000.LST.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127