Corbett suspends recount, Bill Redman wins election

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Tim Corbett announced Tuesday he asked the court to suspend the recount in the Democratic race for St. Joseph County sheriff.

Candidate Bill Redman won by 18 votes on Election Day, so Corbett filed for a recount.

The recount commission reviewed absentee ballots and a sample of the 22,000 votes cast for sheriff over the course of several days.

At the conclusion of the count on Monday, Redman was ahead by 16 votes.

"We're very thankful to the recount commission who spent a lot of time in the warehouse sweating and counting 8,000 votes," says Troy Warner, Redman's attorney.

All of the votes were recounted by hand to see if there were any errors in the primary race. 

"It feels good. We were pretty confident in the democratic process and the election," adds Warner. 

Warner telling ABC57 the campaign team is looking forward to focusing on November's election.

"We are going to work hard for the next 140 days for the campaign and we know that Bill Redman is on the ballot," he says.

But what about Chuck Hurley?

The former police officer threw his name in the ring as an Independent on Monday night. 

"I know Hurley's campaign is considering it and looking at signatures. He isn't on the ballot yet," adds Warner. 

Corbett's team conceded the election in a statement, and thanked his supporter.

But he's also now endorsing Hurley for sheriff. 

In part, Corbett writes, 

    "I'm throwing all of my support and asking everyone who voted for me to vote for Chuck Hurley as your next sheriff...You can vote for someone who says he wants to be on television and give a lot of speeches and allows crime to get worse, or you can vote for someone who is going to be out there keeping you safe." 

But Redman's campaign is staying focused, telling ABC57 that Redman is focusing on what he believes St. Joseph County needs.

"Bill's going to work on his race and focus on his message of community involvement and keeping the community safe, being tough on crime, and treating everybody fairly and equally," says Warner. 

ABC57 News reached out to Paul Jonas, the Republican candidate for Sheriff, to see what his thoughts were on both the recount and the upcoming election. 

Jonas says Corbett did the right thing by insisting on a recount. 

"It was something that was probably something that should have been done because the vote count really was so minimal between the two democratic candidates," he explains. "So I think Corbett did the right thing to have the ballots counted." 

And as for a new possible addition to the race? 

"Chuck Hurley should have gotten involved in this campaign if he wanted to be Sheriff, back at the primary level," Jonas says. 

He adds, regardless of who he'll face come November, he'll be ready.