When Will Election Results Be Final?
First and foremost, THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me! Though I am an unofficial winner in the November 8 election, results may not be final until December 5 or 6 if there is a recount. The Board of Elections is currently going through absentee ballots that came in after the election (27, I believe) and provisional ballots (611). Usually around 10% of provisional ballots are rejected. That still leaves a lot of votes to count, so the unofficial results of the November 8 vote could change significantly when the “official” results are announced on the Board of Elections Web site around noon on Tuesday, November 29.
If the vote-count difference between the third and fourth candidates is equal to or less than 0.5 percent of all the votes cast for the candidates who came in third, fourth, fifth or sixth (18,599), then there will be an automatic recount, which I believe takes place on December 6, with results announced the same day. Using the unofficial results, that means there will be an automatic recount if the difference between candidates three and four in the race is 93 votes or fewer. Currently, the difference between votes for me, in third place, and Jeff Coryell, in fourth place, is 54 votes. In recent times, recounts have changed the official (final) vote by only a vote or two. Candidates can request a partial or full recount if willing to pay $55 per precinct, or $2,035 for all of Cleveland Heights.
The bottom line is I have no idea what the final result will be, but I am going to the City Council meeting tonight to continue to get up to speed. I remain cautiously optimistic.
