Franklin County Commissioner Bob Koch's lead in November's election shrank following a hand recount of the ballots.

Following the initial machine count, Koch led challenger Rocky Mullen by 29 votes. The tight margin forced an automatic manual recount, which Franklin County officials conducted on December 1st and 2nd. When the ballots were recounted, Koch led by just 12 votes.

Mullen was the Franklin County auditor's office when the new results were certified, showing that the gap between himself and Koch had shrunk by more than half.

"The automated ballot counting system had a difference of 29, but the hand count showed a difference of 12," Mullen said following the certification of the recount. In theory, it should be the same, and I expected it to be the same. But when it showed up not the same, well, that raises more questions."

Namely, Mullen wants to know why some corrected ballots weren't counted.

"There were about 300 ballots with challenged signatures. They had their votes in on time, but their signatures were not accepted by the county, and they were given 20 days to correct it. There are a considerable amount of corrected forms that were postmarked prior to the 20 days," Mullen said. "But because they showed up the next morning, those people are being denied their right to have their vote counted."

He said it's discouraging for those people that voted, and then corrected the information on their ballot, had it postmarked on time, but their vote won't be counted.

"It shows the importance that every vote does count."

Mullen has ten days to challenge the certified results, but hasn't decided yet whether he'll do so.

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