Canvassing Board To Recount County Charter Amendment Votes

Votes for the Sarasota County Charter Amendment question in Tuesday's election will be recounted starting Monday after the amendment was initially defeated by 322 votes.

Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent announced the recount Friday stating that a machine recount by the Elections Canvassing Board will begin at 8 a.m. Monday at the Supervisor of Elections Office, 101 S .Washington Blvd.

The question before voters asked if all county charter amendments should be voted on during general election as long as they are filed within 120 days of the election. The move would have saved the county more than $400,000 each time a special election would have to be held.

The measure was narrowly defeated with 50.1 percent of voters choosing no, which comes to 83,366 votes. The yes votes received 49.9 percent of the vote, or 83,044 votes, according to the unofficial results from the election.

Election returns showed that about 40,000 voters declined to answer the question, The Herald-Tribune reported.