The outcome of Tuesday’s election in Janesville has changed. Municipal clerks like Rock County’s Lisa Tollefson are always quick to point out election night voting results are unofficial, and here’s one reason why. Numbers can change. That’s just what happened after the unexpected introduction of a second tabulating machine at Ward 18 in Janesville. Tollefson says a group of numbers from a single Ward were added into third place school board seat winner Stephanie Kortyna-Rapach’s original total. The correction indicates Jim Millard would be the new school board member instead of Kortyna-Rapach. A similar accounting error also cost Janesville City Council third place seat winner Paul Williams some votes, but so far the difference is not enough to change the order of the top vote getters. More changes are possible. Part of the canvassers’ work is to add in the absentee ballots not counted Tuesday. By state law, those with an election day postmark are to be counted, even if they don’t arrive until Friday. None of the results will be official until the board of canvassers for both the city and school district meet early next week.
