Recount could be filed in St. Joseph County Sheriff race

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Bill Redman won the Democratic primary in the St. Joseph County Sheriff's race, but just 18 votes separate him from runner up Tim Corbett out of more than 20,000 ballots case. 

The close election is leaving some people wondering if Corbett's campaign will file a petition for a recount. 

Tuesday night, Corbett refused to concede. 

"There has been no decision on this race yet, nobody has won or lost and that’s where we’re at," said Corbett.

Redman said Wednesday morning his campaign thinks a recount might happen.  

“We anticipate that, but at this time we don’t know," said Redman. 

Corbett's campaign manager said the campaign plans to meet Wednesday night and will make a decision about filing a petition for a recount. 

Terri Rethlake, the St. Joseph County clerk said if Corbett wanted to file a petition for a recount, he must do it by May 22. 

"We would assign it to circuit court and that judge, Judge Broden would then determine a bond and later appoint members of the committee that would actually conduct the physical recount," said Rethlake.  

Rethlake added from there it takes a few days to determine an actual date for the recount. She said the petitioner decides whether the recount is done electronically or by hand and also mentioned Corbett’s campaign would pay for the recount unless he wins it.

Tuesday night Corbett listed a technical error with one of the machines as a reason he wasn’t giving up. Rethlake said one of the machine cards did not read properly, but the board of elections quickly fixed the error.

"Two members of the election board and a South Bend police officer went to that precinct and actually got the ballots and then brought them back and we ran them through another scanner, with another card and counted the ballots but the results came out pretty much the same," said Rethlake.