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Sterling Watkins filed a petition Monday in Kosciusko Circuit Court requesting a special election for the Warsaw Community School Corp. District 4 board member seat.
In the Nov. 2 election, Charles E. "Chuck" Sauders received 767 votes to Watkins' 762 votes.
According to the petition, during the general election in Kosciusko County, Watkins believes "a mistake was made in the distribution of ballots used in said election that made it impossible to determine which candidate received the highest number of votes cast in said school board election."
The mistake occurred at Warsaw Ward 2, Precinct 1, when "one of the four voting machines failed to contain any ballot for the election of the candidates for the election of a school board member for the fourth district of Warsaw Community School Corp. The absence of such ballot was not discovered until after several votes had been cast on the voting machine which did not contain any ballot for said school board election. ... Due to the failure of the voting machine ... it is impossible to determine which candidate received the highest number of votes in said election."
A special election is necessary, according to Watkins' petition, to make it possible to determine the candidate who received the highest number of votes.
With the petition filed, the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department will serve notice to Sauders and to the election board regarding the petition. After all the parties are served notice, the court, within 20 days, will likely set a court date to hear evidence in the case.
If Judge Rex Reed rules in favor of Watkins' petition, Reed would then set a date for a special election.
Last week, Sauders told the Times-Union he would not oppose a recount, but was against a revote because it would not be a true representation of the Nov. 2 election.
The last special election in Kosciusko County was in 1993 for Wawasee School Board.
The cause number of Watkins' filing is 43CO1-0411-MI-856.
Election board members are Mike Miner, Tom Lemon, and Kosciusko County Clerk Sharon Christner.
