Geary maintains 2-vote win in county board race

A recount of a close La Crosse County Board election leads to a different vote total, but the same two-vote margin of victory for Supervisor Ralph Geary.

The county clerk’s office says Geary received 317 votes in the April election, defeating challenger Coey Oliver, who had 315 votes in the 2nd district race in north La Crosse.

Both men each picked up an extra vote during the official election canvass this week.

One new vote was an absentee ballot from a care facility, which had originally been rejected for not having a photo ID, but an administrator at the facility had signed as a witness.

The other extra vote was on a standard ballot, where the voter had placed a mark outside the oval, but the counting machine read it as blank.

There were still 4 write-ins in the district.

Geary and the other supervisors elected this month will begin their two-year county board terms on April 21st.