Christian Caban holds lead after recount, will face Hannah Crow in District 2 runoff
Christian Caban held his 13-vote lead against Lynda Bell in a recount for the vacant Leon County Commission District 2 seat and will move ahead to face Hannah Crow in the November runoff election.
In the first unofficial votes announced Friday, Crow had 26% of the votes. Caban and Bell followed with 15.9% and 15.9%, respectively.
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Since the pair were separated by only 13 votes, they became subject of a machine and manual recount.
On Saturday, there was a machine recount, which removed 213 ballots that were not bubbled correctly by voters, according to Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley.
A Monday manual recount focused on those 213 ballots as the canvassing board assessed each of the votes by hand. None of them counted toward either candidate, leading Caban to hold his slight position ahead of Bell.
"The recounts resulted in no change to any of the vote totals," said Mark Earley, the Leon County supervisor of elections. "The over-voted and the under-voted ballots had no voter intent that was missed by the machines."
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Caban, 30, said in a statement, "We are glad this part of the campaign is over, and we can get back to work bringing voice to the many needs in District 2."
"I appreciate everyone who took the time to vote in the primary and especially those who supported our campaign," he continued. "Thanks to Lynda Bell for her patience and civility during the recount. I know we both agree that District 2 needs a fighter who will make sure our district doesn’t continue to get left behind and the short end of the stick. I am that fighter, and I will work even harder to earn each and every vote needed to become the next Leon County Commissioner from District 2."
Bell, 65, has not responded to requests for comment on the results.
The District 2 seat has been vacant since the COVID-related death in May of the late Jimbo Jackson, who served 30 years as a teacher and principal at Fort Braden School and nearly six years as a Leon County commissioner.
Back story:
Caban, a 30-year-old local business owner who arrived in Leon County to attend Florida State University, focused his campaign on "smart economic development to produce higher paying jobs, infrastructure and more equitable support for our youth," he wrote in a statement.
He was a registered Republican in September 2012, but changed to Democrat in September 2021.
Crow, a communications worker for former Tallahassee Democrat publisher Skip Foster's firm Hammerhead Communications, is a registered Republican. Her campaign has prioritized job creation, crime reduction and infrastructure improvement.
Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Recount: Christian Caban beats Lynda Bell for runoff spot against Crow
