FILE: Michael Fife, election coordinator, prepares to put ballots into a counting machine as Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, shows some of the ballot counting processes of mail-in ballots in South Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019 (Scott G. Winterton/Deseret News)
SANDY — The Sandy mayor’s race is still undecided and will now head for a recount. The difference between the frontrunner and the runner-up is only 21 votes.
In a Facebook post, Sandy City Council member and frontrunner of the race for mayor, Monica Zoltanski, says the council voted on the recount Thursday evening. While the council met to certify election results, Zoltanski says some of the members shared concerns.
“What was expected to be a formality to declare the final election results took a detour when some council members expressed reservations about whether the county clerk’s recount process met their expectations. Despite assurances from our city attorney and the city council attorney that the computerized recalculation was valid under the new ranked-choice voting statute, some council members wanted more,” says Zoltanski on Facebook.
Zoltanski currently leads the race by only 21 votes over closest opponent Jim Bennett. KSL NewsRadio reported on Nov. 5 that Zoltanski declared victory in the race after opponent Jim Bennett called her to concede the race.
Bennett tells the Deseret News he does not believe a recount will change the final result of the election, but he supports the move.
Before deciding to request a recount, the city council unsuccessfully voted to reject the election results and failed to certify the final tally.
Monica Zoltanski abstained from both motions.
In her social media post, she said, “I abstained from both votes. Why? As much as I wanted finality, I could not in good conscience be the deciding vote with a divided council, to certify my own election. With half the council unwilling to accept the results, I knew it was more important to get it done right, than get it done tonight.”
Zoltanski then voted in favor of requesting a full recount which now heads to the Salt Lake County Clerk.
To her, it was a matter of integrity and trust in the electoral process.