Though Election Day is in the rearview mirror, the race for three seats on the Logan Municipal Council remains tight.
With a field of six total candidates, current vote totals show three candidates vying for one seat are within just 28 votes of each other, making every vote carry a significant weight.
“So far, we're looking at, of the six candidates, we've got the top two, Mark Anderson and Mike Johnson, it looks like they have 21 and 17 percent of the vote each," said David Benson, the Cache County clerk/auditor. "The following three candidates — Jeannie Simmons, Joe Needham, and Katie Lee-Koven — are all right around 14 and a half percent, they're pretty close. So those candidates that are ranked right now, three, four and five are very, very close.”
Benson said Thursday morning his office still has yet to count around 20 ballots from around the county, which he said would be done before the end of the day Thursday.
According to state law, if the difference between the number of votes cast for a winning candidate and a losing candidate is equal to or less than .25% of the total number of votes cast for all candidates, the losing candidate can request a recount.
Vote totals as of Thursday morning show incumbent council member Simmonds would narrowly win reelection, with opponents Needham and Lee-Koven trailing her by 15 and 28 votes, respectively. The margins for Needham and Lee-Koven are well within that .25% margin needed to ask for a recount.
“It's not an automatic recount," Benson said. "It must be requested by one of the losing candidates and that equates to about 37 votes. And so right now, like both Joe Needham and Katie Lee-Koven, are within that 37 vote margin to request a recount if they'd like.”
Benson said the candidates have seven days to request a recount after the vote total is certified, which is expected to happen early next week.
