As much as we had hoped to report to you the full, final and official results of last week's municipal election, alas, we cannot.
Yesterday, just as the county Board of Elections was about to provide that information, an appeal was filed challenging the validity of absentee ballots that had been delivered to the county en masse.
Nothing in Warren County, it seems, is ever easy or clear-cut.
The outcome of that challenge may or may not affect the outcome of the races for school board. We don't know at this point because we don't know what's in them or the outcome of the challenge. All we know for certain is that the challenge has to do with hundreds of absentee ballot forms collected from the Board of Elections - "for the Amish," the board was told - and then turned in completed at the time of the election.
The back story, for those of you who may be unaware, is an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort by two groups supporting the conversion of Eisenhower Middle/High School to Eisenhower Charter School. No, the charter school wasn't on the ballot, but two candidates for the two open seats on the board campaigned with the charter school as the primary plank of their platforms.
If only aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts were as successful when a single issue isn't the focus, it might be easier to hold an election and be content that the result was a true consensus, a clear mandate for either change or the status quo.
Nevertheless, we, along with those who are at least mildly interested, will now wait a bit longer for what is either a fait accompli or a surprise.