Lexington County will find out final results for three school board races Friday.

After the Nov. 8 election, separation in the races for three seats on the Lexington County School District 1 board, three seats on the Lexington District 2 board and two Lexington County seats on the Lexington-Richland School District 5 board was within the 1% margin that requires a recount under state law.

Lenice Shoemaker, director of elections and registration for the county, told the Chronicle the counts in the races have been checked and that it will be determined Nov. 11, when the county moves to certify election results, if further recounting is required.

“No change in the totals,” she said. “Nothing changed.”

Those totals had Katie McCown pushing past Harriet Coker by 397 votes to join Beth Shealy and Chris Rice on the District 1 board, former Board Member Kevin Key nudging out Chuck Hightower by six votes to join incumbents Christina Rucker and Linda Alford-Wooten in winning seats on the District 2 board, and Mike Satterfield edging incumbent Ken Loveless for a seat on the District 5 board (Satterfield are Loveless are separated by 14 votes, and Elizabeth Barnhardt, the top vote getter, beat Satterfield by 103 votes).

The District 1 seats drew 11 candidates for a race that often focused on parents’ rights in deciding how their children are educated, with all three incumbents that would have been on the ballot choosing to vacate their seats. 

The District 2 race came in the wake of accreditation issues at Brookland-Cayce High School and the sudden resignation of former Superintendent Nicolas Wade earlier this year, though these issues didn’t seem hurt current Board Chair Rucker or fellow incumbent Alford-Wooten much, as they lead the challengers in that race by a comfortable margin.

In District 5, however, it looks like all incumbents on the ballot have been beaten. With ethics complaints and lawsuits swirling around the board for a couple years now, Board Members Nikki Gardner and Tifani Moore were solidly beaten by challengers Kimberly Snipes and Kevin Skully in the race for two seats representing Richland County. Loveless, who has been embroiled in legal action against alleged Facebook critics and fighting allegations that he had a business relationship with the company the district contracted to build a new elementary school, looks to have barely lost re-election.