Absentee and provisional ballots turned the race for Akron Municipal Court Judge in favor of sitting Judge Katarina V. Cook. Election night results showed Jon A. Oldham winning.

Absentee and provisional ballots turned the race for Akron Municipal Court Judge in favor of sitting Judge Katarina V. Cook. Election night results showed Jon A. Oldham winning.

After counting additional timely, valid absentee and provisional ballots from the November 5 election, amended, unofficial vote totals from the Summit County Board of Elections now show that Akron Municipal Court Judge Katarina V. Cook leads Jon A. Oldham by 17 votes for judge.

Results on election night showed that Oldham, a magistrate/judicial attorney in Summit County Probate Court, was leading Judge Cook by 16 votes for a full six-year term that will begin January 1, 2014.

Board of Elections Director Joseph P. Masich said the board counted the provisional and additional uncounted absentee ballots on Monday. Based on those amended results, Judge Cook received 13,887 votes to Oldham’s 13,870. At its meeting on November 26, the board will certify the results in this race and others from the general election, Masich said.

Any races where the margin of victory is one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast will be subject to an automatic recount, Masich said. It’s expected that the board at its meeting Tuesday will set a date to conduct a recount.

All judges in Ohio are elected to six-year terms. Elections for municipal court judgeships occur in odd-numbered years, while elections for the Ohio Supreme Court, appeals courts, common pleas courts, and county courts occur in even-numbered years.

Supreme Court staff members assemble the election results from the local county boards of elections for administrative purposes, to communicate with new judges about payroll, benefits, and other information.