Seneca County race for sheriff a rollercoaster

For a position that will be dealing with the fallout from the previous adminstration under Leo Connelly, the race for Seneca County Sheriff has been tight. And for the projected winner, Jack Stenberg, the last week and a half of counting votes has had its ups...

"On election night I was 76 ahead," he said.

...and downs.

"They discovered very quickly that one of the formulas on the roll for Bob Steele was in fact incorrect and he had more votes than had been tabulated."

But then Stenberg came back on top after election officials counted the more than 400 absentee ballots.

"I ended up winning by 27 votes," Stenberg said.

Officials were double checking election tallies Thursday morning in what they say was expected to be a close race between five candidates and two write-ins. But as far as Stenberg is concerned...

"It's time to put the campaign behind us," he said, "and it's time to go to work."

For the past three and a half years, Stenberg has worked as an investigator for the district attorney, but come January, he's likely to be stepping into a much different position. And he plans to clean up the sheriff's department that was touched by scandal.

"Items are going to be left over from the last administration that need to be taken care of and the mindset of the department needs healing."

Stenberg says he wants to establish some structure and discipline. Of course, he won't have any official plans to do that until the election is officials, which could be as early as Friday.

"The numbers have to be right regardless of the outcome," Stenberg said, "the numbers have to be correct."