Milton City Council Ward 2 race still undecided after recounts. When we'll know who won:
Machine and manual recounts failed to change the vote totals for Marilynn Farrow or Wesley Meiss on Friday.
The winner for Milton City Council's first seat in Ward 2 will be determined after overseas ballots are counted, according to the Santa Rosa County Supervisor of Elections.
According to the Santa Rosa County's Supervisor of Elections website, the final vote totals for Farrow and Meiss were 1,408 and 1,407, respectively — the same numbers they received Tuesday night during the midterm elections.
However, Santa Rosa Supervisor of Elections Tappie Villane told the News Journal a winner still cannot be declared until Nov. 18, when the canvassing board certifies overseas ballots.
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"Please note the Canvassing Board has a meeting next Friday, Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. to review 10 day overseas vote by mail ballots and submit Official Results to the State," Villane wrote in an email to the News Journal. "Once that has occurred a winner can be declared in that contest."
Under Florida law, a machine recount must be ordered if the first set of unofficial returns indicates a candidate was defeated or eliminated by ½ of 1%, 0.05%, or less of the total votes cast for an office. Farrow leads Meiss by 0.0007%.
Farrow told the News Journal on Friday afternoon that she is "willing to wait" for the results and will accept whatever outcome determined Nov. 18.
"It's not under my control, so I will wait patiently," she said. "Whatever the outcome, I'll still be involved in the community."
In a Facebook post on Wednesday morning, Meiss seemed at peace with the initial result that he was "one vote short last night" and sent his thanks to his supporters and his congratulations to Farrow.
"Congrats to Mrs. Farrow!" Meiss wrote in a Wednesday morning Facebook post. "Barring some technical glitch revealed during the mandatory recount, which is highly unlikely, she'll do a fine job. As for me, I think I'll take a step back for a while......."
Benjamin Johnson can be reached at bjohnson@pnj.com or 850-435-8578
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton City Council Ward 2 race between Farrow, Meiss still a toss up
