There were no Democrat candidates on the May 19 primary ticket for the open seat on the North Whitehall Board of Supervisors.

Republicans Mark Hills, a former supervisor, and incumbent Richard Celmer were vying for their party's nomination for the 6-year term, starting in 2016.

Hills was appointed supervisor in 2012 to fill the vacancy left by Jerry Joseph.

Celmer unseated Hills in the May 2013 primary and beat Democrat Sam Neas in the November 2013 election for a two-year seat on the board.

The day after this year's primary, Hills thought he lost again, but he started thinking about the vote count.

There was only a 10-vote separation between Celmer and himself in five of the six voting districts.

The Lehigh County Voter Registration website showed him winning by two votes.

However, District 5 had him losing by 58 votes, which would have him losing township-wide by 54 votes.

Apparently, the votes for Hills, and Celmer's votes were added together and given to Celmer, giving a total in excess of the number of people voting in that district.

Hills checked the official vote count and found out he had indeed won the primary election.

The final count was 330 for Hills and 328 for Celmer.

Celmer did not know of his loss until the following week when he was told by Hills of the final count.

As this was later than the recount deadline, he could not have a recount.

According to the courthouse, he could get a letter from an attorney and along with $160 could object to the count.

Celmer, who decided against any further action and resigned himself to his fate told The Press he would give thought to running in the election again if the opportunity arose.

Celmer has an engineering background and participates in engineering work for other municipalities.

He had resigned from the township planning commission to run for supervisor and is currently the board's representative on the commission.

At the end of the year, he will make himself available for reappointment, if needed.

Celmer said he holds no animosity toward anyone but regrets having lost for the people who voted for him. He believes a larger voter turnout could have changed the final count.