PIERCETON — The saying one vote makes a difference, is true in the case for the third seat on the Pierceton Town Council.  After all ballots were counted there is a tie between Aaron W. Robbins, Republican, and Armando (Mandy) Espinoza, Democrat and incumbent.

Thomas Barker, Republican, and Matthew Brubaker, Republican, were two winners of the three-seat race and will take office on Jan. 1, 2016.

County Election Board members Antony Garza and Randy Girod stated state statute 3-12-9-4 states the current fiscal body will resolve any tie in a municipal election. “The town council will resolve the issue and it must be done before Jan. 1,” stated Girod. The statue also states any current board member who is running for re-election may not vote in resolution of the tie.

“There is no gray area. We (the election board) talked about it at length. We’ve done our job as a county, the vote is now up to them,” said Girod. Garza stated should the two board members tie in the replacement vote, the existing clerk-treasurer, Janet Castle, will cast the tie-breaking vote.

The decision on who will fill that third seat will be up to Ron Hall and James Bumbaugh, neither candidate was seeking re-election.

The final vote, after all three precincts in the town were counted, resulted in Thomas (Tom) Barker, Republican, receiving 63 votes, Matthew Brubaker, Republican, receiving 71 votes and Aaron W. Robbins, Republican and Armando (Mandy) Espinoza, Democrat, receiving 53 votes each. Voters were to vote for three candidates only.

Jeff F. Kreger, Republican, candidate for clerk-treasurer, was unopposed and received 69 votes.

Precinct Breakdown

Precinct 1 only had a total of seven voters out of 107 cast their ballots. In this precinct, Brubaker received six votes, Robbins, four, and Barker and Espinoza receiving three each. Only one straight party ticket was cast for the Republicans.

Precinct 2 had a better turn out of voters with 33 of the 152 eligible voters coming to the polls. Brubaker received 28 votes, Barker, 26, and Robbins, 23. Espinoza received 10 votes. There were eight Republican straight party votes cast.

Espinoza won the votes in Precinct 3, which had 52 machine ballots cast and two absentee ballots out of its 422 eligible voters. Espinoza received 40 votes, followed by Brubaker with 37, Barker with 34 and Robbins with 26. There were three straight party tickets cast for the Democrats and six for the Republicans.