Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect unofficial results from the Boone County Clerk’s Office. All precincts are reporting.
Voters in Boone County have selected new faces for city council and mayor in local municipal races.
Results in Boone County trickled out quickly to media until around 8 p.m., when County Attorney Robert Neace reported 10 precincts had machines that malfunctioned during tabulation and needed to recount ballots.
Neace said the newer machines issued by the Secretary of State’s office this year reported a paper jam during the tabulation. He said votes would then drop from the machine as if they had been counted, but election workers could see they were not counted.
Neace estimated that as many as 30 to 40 ballots were not counted in the initial run, though he said all ballots in those precincts would be counted again to ensure all votes are accurately counted. Final results came in overnight and were updated on the Boone County Clerk’s website.
Top races in Boone County include the race for Florence mayor between current city council member Julie Metzger Aubuchon and former city council member Duane Froelicher.
Aubuchon won the race with more than 54% of the vote to Froelicher’s 45%. They were separated by a margin of 641 votes.
Aubuchon will succeed current Mayor Diane Whalen, who has served more than 20 years as leader of the city. Likewise, Aubuchon has served on the city council for the entirety of Whalen’s tenure. She will be sworn in early January.
In Union, voters stuck with incumbent Mayor Larry Solomon, awarding him another four years in office. Solomon pursued another term in order to see several multi-million dollar projects in Union. He won by a safe margin of 72% to challenger Eric Dulaney, who earned 27% of the vote.
Dulaney’s pursuit of the mayoral seat meant giving up a chance for another term on Union City Commission. Originally from Fort Mitchell, he moved to Union in 2014. One has to live in the city for at least a year before pursuing an elected position, so he ran for a city commission seat in 2016, as soon as he could as a new resident.
In the race for the new family court judge seat, Kendra McCardle won with more than 62% of the vote over opponent Keith McMain, who received 37% of the vote.
In the race for the Boone County Schools Board of Education, where three seats were up for election in a field of six candidates, board chairwoman Julie Pile lost to challenger Cindy Young by 93 votes.
Incumbent candidate Karen Byrd won by 53% to challenger Karen Strayer’s 46% of the vote.
The race between incumbent candidate Keith Collins and challenger Carolyn Hankins Wolfe was too close to call for most of the night. At one point, Collins was ahead by a margin of 10 votes. After final results rolled in, Wolfe was declared the winner by 79 votes.
The race for Walton-Verona Independent School District Board of Education’s three open seats was populated by a field of eight candidates. The unofficial results show voters chose to maintain incumbent candidate Heather Stewart. Results show interim board member Aubrey Ryan was voted in for a four-year term. Newcomer James Dixon also received a majority of the votes, making it into the top three candidates. In January, he will take the seat currently held by Kyle Art.
In the race for Walton City Council, Terri Lynn Courtney, Dan Martin, Matthew Brown, Rosalyn Beach, Amanda Long, and Sherry Snowden we all awarded a two-year term.
Four of the five incumbent candidates for Florence City Council earned another term, including David Osborne, Patricia Wingo, Gary Winn, and Mel Carroll. Meanwhile, challengers Lesley Chambers and Jenna Kemper were also awarded seats on the city council.
In Boone County, 51% of voters chose “yes” on Constitutional Amendment One, which awarded the power to call a special session of the state legislature to local senators and representatives.
On Constitutional Amendment Two, which impacted whether the Kentucky Constitution would explicitly exclude the right to an abortion in the Commonwealth, 51% of Boone County voters also chose “yes.”