The extraordinarily close race for second place in the Tallahassee City Commission Seat 3 primary has moved to a manual recount Monday morning. According to reports by WCTV and WTXL, Tom Derzypolski holding a 13-vote advantage over Talethia Edwards for a spot in the November runoff.
The Leon County Canvassing Board scheduled the manual recount to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 24, according to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office.
The manual review follows a machine recount conducted over the weekend that reduced Derzypolski’s advantage by one vote.
After provisional and vote-by-mail ballots were reviewed last week, Derzypolski held second place with 10,532 votes compared with 10,518 for Edwards — a difference of only 14 votes, or about 0.04 percentage points.
The machine recount subsequently resulted in Derzypolski losing one vote, reducing his lead over Edwards to 13 votes and triggering the manual recount.
The recount will determine which candidate advances to the Nov. 3 general election runoff against P.J. Perez, who finished first in the six-candidate primary with approximately 29% of the vote. No candidate received the majority required to win the seat outright.
The race has tightened since election night.
Initial results following the Aug. 18 primary showed Derzypolski with 10,524 votes and Edwards with 10,500 — a 24-vote difference. After election officials reviewed provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots requiring additional attention, the margin fell to 14 votes.
Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley has emphasized that recounts are a normal part of the election process when margins are extremely narrow. During the machine recount, all ballots containing the Seat 3 contest were rerun through the tabulation system under established chain-of-custody procedures.
Both Edwards and Derzypolski have publicly expressed confidence in the election process while awaiting the final result.
The winner of the recount will face Perez in November for the seat currently held by City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who gave up the seat to run for mayor.
The Supervisor of Elections Office has not yet posted a final result from Monday’s manual recount. Its website currently identifies the manual recount as the next step in resolving the Seat 3 contest.
Be the first to leave a comment on this article.