The Elmbrook School Board recount has ended. Here are the results.
Quinn Clark
After a four-day hand recount of about 20,000 votes — the first ever in the history of the Elmbrook School District — the winner of the Area 3 school board seat will not change.
The recount requested last week by losing candidate Gregg Eberhardt concluded Tuesday with Dr. Preetha Kurudiyara as the top vote-getter. Eberhardt lost by 47 votes in the April 4 election and requested a recount based on "potential irregularities or illegalities," according to his recount petition.
Final results were announced Wednesday by the Board of Canvassers of the School District of Elmbrook.
This is the first recount for a school board race in the district's history, said Elmbrook School Board President Scott Wheeler, and the narrow margin was close enough for the process to come at no cost to Eberhardt.
"In my eight years on the board, this is the first time that we've had an election be this close," said Wheeler. The cost of the recount lies with the district, or taxpayer dollars, he added.
The estimated cost of the recount, which includes "attorney fees, poll workers, food, staff support, and security" is $40,210, according to the district.
The district's Board of Canvassers at an emergency meeting late last week chose to conduct a hand recount rather than a machine recount.
The canvassers include board clerk Linda Boucher and her appointed electors, Kathy Lim and Christine VanderBloemen. Lim was appointed as an Elmbrook School Board member last year and still serves on the board.
If elected, Eberhardt would have joined the at-large member-elect Sam Hughes. Eberhardt and Hughes ran as Elmbrook's "conservative candidates," endorsed by political action committees the 1776 Project and WisRed.
The Republican Party of Waukesha County donated an "in-kind contribution for postcards," in the amount of $2,305 to Eberhardt's campaign, according to finance reports.
Kurudiyara has maintained that her campaign is nonpartisan. She did not receive any support from a political party, her campaign finance records show.
The recount was open to the public and livestreamed on the district's YouTube channel.
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Quinn Clark can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Quinn_A_Clark.