The vote count changed microscopically but the percentages remained the same after today's recount in the neck-and-neck Dade Board of Election District 2 race. Challenger Larry Williams had requested the recount after losing to incumbent Jennifer Hartline by eight votes--1032 to her 1040.
Poll worker Tracy Street at the Dade Board of Elections said the recount did actually pick up three additional provisional ballots but that one was for Williams, one was for the incumbent and one was a nonpartisan ballot with neither of the candidates on it. Thus it changed the outcome to 1033 to 1041 but he still loses, she still wins, and there will still be no runoff election in August.
Street said in tiny Dade, this is the usual story for recounts. In a sprawling metro Atlanta county with hundreds of machines at dozens of sites, he said, it is conceivable a memory card might have fallen through the metaphorical cracks and a recount really might alter the outcome of a tight race. But in Dade, he said, "That hasn't happened in all the time that I've been associated with the Board of Elections."
But it doesn't hurt to ask, added Street. "That's the right of every candidate," he said.
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