This year Election Day was on Nov. 21 and Logan City held elections for its city council. The six candidates running for three spots on the council were Joe Needham, Katie Lee-Koven, Mark Anderson, Erin Bennett, Jeannie Simmonds and Mike Johnson.
On Dec. 5 the city held a canvass to announce the results from the general election. The winners for the three seats on the council were Anderson, Johnson and Simmonds.
During the canvass, City Recorder Teresa Harris shared that the margin of votes between Simmonds, Needham and Lee-Koven was close enough that a recount could be requested.
The candidates had seven days after the canvass to request one.
“What the Utah code is, the difference between the number of votes cast for a winning candidate in the race and a losing candidate in the race is equal to or less that 0.25% of the total number of votes cast for all candidates in that race. So the losing candidate may file a request for a recount,” Harris said.
Harris sent out an email on Dec. 7 announcing that Lee-Koven had requested a recount.
The recount will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 9 a.m. at the Ballot Processing Center located at the Logan/Cache Airport. According to Cache County Election Specialist Dustin Hansen it will take approximately six hours.
For the recount, all of the ballots that were previously counted will be run back through the machines and recounted. Hansen said the only change in numbers that would happen in the recount would be from adjudication.
“Me and another person adjudicated a bunch of ballots, those are the undervotes, those are unclear marks,” Hansen said. “But there’s a slim, slim chance that somebody disagrees and we have a slight change because of that. That’s where your difference is going to be in a recount.”
The city will hold another canvass at 4 p.m. on Dec. 14 at City Hall to review the final results after the recount.
