After two weeks awaiting final election results, four city council candidates in Sandy and Salt Lake City will have their misery prolonged through a recount.
Dea Theodore finished just nine votes ahead of Jim Edwards in Sandy’s District 3 race, having seen her 45-vote election night lead dwindle until, at one point in the ballot-counting, they were tied.
“I think I‘m cautiously optimistic,” Theodore said.
Asked if he believes he’s likely to make up that ground he needs, Edwards said: ”Nope, but you never give up hope.”
The winner will try to unseat incumbent Kris Nicholl, who received 41 percent of the primary vote. Theodore and Edwards each received 23 percent of the vote.
In Salt Lake City Council District 5, Noah Rosenberg trails George Chapman by just six votes, 287 to Chapman’s 293, after Rosenberg lost his 10-vote election-night lead.
Rosenberg said he first asked how much a recount would cost taxpayers before opting to challenge. Told it was less than $2,000, he went for it.
Chapman said Salt Lake County’s election process is reliable and that the vote is unlikely to change, but ”I’m not going to take it personal. I think it’s his right.”
Whoever prevails faces a tall order in unseating Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall, who garnered 74 percent of the primary vote.
Chapman said that if it’s him, he may change his strategy and spend more money on mailers.
“I‘m not going to walk again, and I’m not going to call again, because obviously that doesn’t work,” he said. ”Boy, didn’t it work.”
The recount will be open to public observation at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6 at the Salt Lake County Government Center, 2001 South State St.
An audit will also be conducted on a sampling of 1 percent of voting machines and vote-by-mail ballots cast in those races.