One of three races for La Center City Council in the August primary now has enough of a difference in votes to avoid a mandatory recount, though the gap between second and third place in the contest is only four votes.
As of the official election results certified on Aug. 17, Clark County Elections data shows Sean Boyle in second place for the La Center City Council Position 3 primary race with 301 votes, putting fellow challenger Janice Fowler in third with 297. The gap needed to be at least three votes for Boyle to move on to the general election in November, facing off against incumbent Randy Williams, who had 359 votes as of certification.
Boyle’s tight lead developed over a week’s timeframe following the Aug. 3 deadline for the primary. Boyle initially trailed Fowler by 32 votes. Two days later, Fowler’s lead shrunk to a single vote, and by the end of the week Boyle had taken the lead by two.
The second-place race for position 3 avoided a mandatory recount as the difference between Boyle and Fowler’s totals is greater than a half of a percentage point of the total votes between the two, Clark County Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber explained. If the difference between the two candidates’ votes were two or fewer, state law would mandate a hand recount of all ballots in the race.
If the race ended up in a tie by certification, the second-place finisher would be decided “by lot” through a coin flip, according to state law.
La Center City Council had the most contested races of any entity in North County this year, with 13 candidates seeking three seats open for election. The city’s other two races, while close, had more definitive front-runners. For position 1, Justin Keeler and Melissa Fox are set to move on, taking first and second place respectively, and for position 2, challenger KC Kasberg took first against incumbent Dennis Hill, who came in second.
