Recount reported in Oklahoma State House District 45 shows Stiles won election

Despite one canidate’s celebration Tuesday night, the tables turned early Wednesday morning in a very close Oklahoma State House District 45 race.

Republican incumbent Aaron Stiles pulled ahead of Democratic opponent Paula Roberts after a finalized recount at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday. The recount showed Stiles ahead of Roberts by only 18 votes — 6,786 and 6,768 votes, respectively.

Initial predictions had Roberts winning by a slight margin all Tuesday night.

However, a recount was necessary after Cleveland County officials learned of problems with ballot collections in two precincts.

“Two voting scan machines in combine precinct 55 and 91 took ballots, but only one machine was working properly,” said Anette Pretty, Cleveland County Election Board’s assistant executive secretary. “One malfunctioned and was unable to print, so that is why we had the recount.”

After the recount, Stiles was announced the winner, but the final results will not become official until Friday if Roberts does not request a recount, Pretty said.

Roberts has until 5 p.m. Friday to request a full recount.

“We owe it to our supports and voters to weigh our decision carefully, and we are still weighing our options about the recount,” said Amanda Roberts, Paula Robert’s daughter and campaign manager.

Amanda Roberts would not say whether they were inclined to request a recount or not.

All 83 precincts in Cleveland County have reported their votes, but provisional ballots — those cast by voters who did not bring proper ID to the polls, but can return with that ID — have yet to be counted.

Calls to Stiles’ campaign were not returned.

Brooke Hankinson

Brooke is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Campus Reporter.