- November 23, 2024
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After a recount of the votes for two races in the county, Pam Richardson has officially defeated Palm Coast Vice Mayor Ed Danko for the Flagler County Commission seat.
That county race and a Palm Coast City Council race triggered a machine and manual recount that began at 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23 and continued until the early afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 24. The Flagler County Canvassing Board oversaw the process.
The machine recount process of all 27,459 ballots took until 1:12 a.m. on Saturday, while the manual recount of all the "over and under" ballots — ballots where there were discrepancies, like an individual choosing two candidates in the same race or even leaving a race blank — resumed at 9 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 3:25 p.m.
After the Primary Election on Aug. 20, Danko trailed Richardson by 40 votes — a .26% difference — with another 46 ballots needing to be verified before the counts could be finalized.
The Canvassing Board is made of of three people, Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart, County Commissioner Dave Sullivan and Flagler County Judge Andrea Totten, the board chair, with county attorney Sean Moylan serving as the board’s attorney. Alternate board member County Commissioner Donald O’Brien also sat in on the proceedings.
The board first met at 10 a.m. to verify the provisional ballots.
Of the 46 provisional and referred mail ballots, only 11 were accepted, one provisional ballot and 10 referred mail ballots. Of those 11 ballots, Richardson received one extra vote and Danko four, decreasing the margin to 37 votes.
In the Palm Coast District 3 race, the votes were divided between three candidates: Andrew Werner, Dana “Mark” Stancel and Ray Stevens. By the end of the Primary Election on Aug. 20, Werner had 34% of the vote, but Stancel and Stevens each had 32.8% and 32.82%, respectively — the two were separated by just two votes.
After the 11 provisional and referred ballots were accepted, Stancel and Stevens were still separated by just two votes: each candidate received three additional votes, and Werner one additional vote.
Following the machine and manual recounts, Richardson's tally remained the same, with 7,587 votes to Danko's 7,550. Richardson's race was only available for republican voters to vote on because of a write-in candidate, whom she will face in the general election, unless that candidate withdraws.
In the Palm Coast race, Stevens maintained his two-vote lead over Stancel, ending with a final tally of 6,191 votes to 6,189. Werner ended with a final count of 6,484. Stevens and Werner will face each other in the general election.
The machine recount was triggered by the candidates in the two races being less than one half-percent apart in votes. A manual recount was triggered by the candidates being less than .25% apart, according to the recount procedures the canvassing board is required to follow.
Richardson said that though she has sat on several various boards throughout her years in Flagler County and also served as a clerk in several positions, she had never had the opportunity to sit in on a recount process.
"It is long, it is tenuous, it is stressful and it's scary," Richardson said. "On the other hand, it's a wonderful process. I'm proud of how the elections office has been so professional and handled everything."
It is the first time in six years that any race in the county triggered a recount.
Richardson said she is looking forward to learning the rules of the county commission job. She said she wants to be as available to the residents as possible and to hear their concerns.
"The residents here deserve the respect of a commissioner that wants to hear what they have to say. I can't fix everything, but I'm here to help," she said. "I want to be the help."
This story was updated Aug. 26 at 8:27 a.m.
