Some elections too close to call are now decided. Over the weekend, election offices around Florida held mandated recounts for races within a point-five percent margin, including several in Central Florida.
In the Republican Primary for Florida’s 11th Congressional District, which includes all of Sumter County and north and western parts of the Orlando metro area, Joe Strada edged out Carey Baker by just 393 votes.
Strada carried endorsements from other influential Republicans in the state, including Congressman Randy Fine, Attorney General James Uthmeier and state Senator Jason Brodeur.
He will face off against Democrat James Pericola in the Nov. 3 general election to succeed veteran Florida Republican Rep. Daniel Webster, who announced his retirement in May.
Osceola races
Two nonpartisan Osceola County races also went to recounts over the weekend.
The election for St. Cloud’s fifth city council seat will go to a runoff in November, and Alex Rodriguez will hold onto a spot on that ballot behind first place finisher Kirk Zilke, the city’s former deputy policy chief.
Last week, Rodriguez led Jim Moore for the second-place spot by just three votes. Once the hand recount was finished on Saturday, that race was decided by just a single vote.
In the contest for Osceola County’s third school board seat, Alyssa Noel kept her lead over Natalie Guzman after a machine recount, with no change in the final tally.
The state will certify the election results on Thursday.
Deltona Mayor’s race
No other races in Central Florida were close enough to go to a recount — though one was close.
In Volusia County, the Deltona mayor’s race was nearly evenly split between three candidates: Maritza Vazquez, who got 34.04% of the vote; Jason Voelz, who got 33.64%; and Santiago Avila Jr., who got 32.31% of the vote.
Even though Vazquez and Voelz were nearly identical in their vote totals — separated by just 52 votes; a 0.4% margin — the race did not go to a recount.
That’s because no candidate got an outright majority of the vote in that election, meaning that the two most popular candidates will go to a runoff in the Nov. 3 general election.
Avila trailed Voelz by more than the 0.5% threshold needed to trigger a recount, county election staff explained on Monday. Even with a recount, they said, Vazquez and Voelz would almost certainly remain the top two candidates to advance in the runoff election.
