Recount confirms Fogle wins House seat

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Betsy Fogle wins state House District 135 by a slim margin.

The votes have been recounted and Democrat Betsy Fogle remains the winner in an extremely tight contest for an east Springfield Missouri House of Representative seat. 

Republican Steve Helms was the incumbent in District 135. But Fogle upended him by 80 votes on Election Day. The narrow results triggered a manual recount, according to state code, that concluded Fogle as victor late last night. 

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller announced the results in a news release: Fogle held 76 more votes than Helms. 

Here’s the breakdown from the recount: 

• Betsy Fogle, Democrat: 8,548 votes, 48.19%  
• Steve Helms, Republican: 8,472 votes, 47.76% 
• Vickie Kepling, Green: 696 votes, 3.9% 

There were 22 write-in votes, according to the release. 

“This recount was conducted in an open, transparent and bipartisan manner that should make all Greene County voters proud and confident in the final results,” Schoeller said in the release. “It has been a great privilege to work with our elections judges from all perspectives and walks of life as they worked hard to make sure this result was rendered accurately and in a timely manner.” 

Schoeller said the next step in the process is for the recount results to be reviewed by a verification board. That meeting is scheduled 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Greene County Historic Courthouse, Room 113, according to the release.