A judge candidate considering a recount won't move forward after all, she said, because some of the required petitioners are afraid of retaliation from her opposition.

Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale told The Eagle on Monday that although she's collected more than 100 signatures from voters, she's halting her attempts to organize a recount. She showed the newspaper signatures from the necessary number of voters in 19 of 89 precincts.

However, according to Vanasdale, some of those same voters started contacting her Sunday with concerns about moving forward, particularly in the precinct she planned to challenge first.

“They have serious fears of retaliation,” Vanasdale said. “I find their fears to be credible. I understand why voters would be concerned.”

In the county's judicial race for Court of Common Pleas, uncertified results show Vanasdale losing the Democratic nomination by six votes in last month's primary election.

Vanasdale made legal efforts over the past week to view or informally recount ballots. She also submitted an affidavit in which one voter at the South Butler Fire Hall said her voting machine gave her the wrong ballot.

Vanasdale had originally planned to trigger a recount in two steps before halting her efforts on Monday. First, she was going to assemble and file petitions from three voters from the South Butler Fire Hall precinct, Butler Township 1-1, including the aforementioned voter whose affidavit she presented in court last week.

Meanwhile, as that process went on, she and her team would attempt to gather the necessary signatures in the county's other 70 precincts to trigger recounts in all of them. A recount in any precinct requires three voters from that precinct to submit petitions and $50 per petition by Tuesday. According to attorney Sean Logue's reading of the law, they needed to provide additional sworn allegations of suspected problems or fraud from voters if they were to only call for a recount in specific precincts. Logue represents Vanasdale.

So, they would first submit the extra information in Butler Township 1-1 where they had three voters ready to go to bat for Vanasdale. That would give them a little extra time, they hoped, to finish collecting signatures to get all 89 precincts covered and initiate a countywide recount.

In Butler Township 1-1, Vanasdale said, two of the three voters told her Sunday night that they were worried about going public.

“I'm unwilling to put voters at risk,” Vanasdale said.

Vanasdale showed The Eagle affidavits from those three Butler Township 1-1 voters she was supposed to file Monday, but declined to provide those submitters' names. The information in the affidavits have not been submitted to the court, and therefore have not been verified or disproved.

One of the petitions states that President Judge Thomas Doerr made a statement campaigning against Vanasdale at the South Butler Fire Hall on voting day.

The document states that Doerr said “I would not vote for her. She is not qualified to be judge” in a loud voice at the voting precinct.

Doerr offered a brief rebuff on Monday.

“I have no comment,” Doerr said. “I do vote at the South Butler Fire Hall, but I did not make any public statement to anybody.”

Vanasdale represents a county employee in a lawsuit against Doerr and the county government.

“In all of our filings, Jennifer was just asking for transparency. Her campaign has been about accountability,” Logue said.

Shari Brewer, director of the county Bureau of Elections, could not be reached for comment Monday.

As for the route forward, Vanasdale said she thinks a recount should have been automatic and that she may try to appeal the case in a different court.

Statewide races get automatic recounts if the victor won by 0.5 percent of the vote or less. Her margin was just 0.06 percent.

“A judge reports to the state,” she said. “I file my paperwork to the state.”

She said she is yet to decide whether to pursue a write-in campaign in November against William “Wink” Robinson, who appears to have secured both the Democratic and Republican nominations in the race.