PARK CITY, Utah — It's a very unusual situation for Park City.
The city has a new mayor-elect, but no one is ready to celebrate just yet. With a difference of just seven votes separating the two candidates, everyone is holding their breath to see if there will be a recount.
City Council member Ryan Dickey was declared the winner at Tuesday night's council meeting after a canvass process finalized the results. His opponent, Jack Rubin, was also in the audience.
There is a maximum nine-vote difference to demand a recount in this race, according to Park City Recorder Michelle Kellogg. Since Dickey won by only seven — 1,706 to 1,699 — it puts the ball in Rubin's court.
Kellogg says Rubin has until Friday at 5 p.m. to demand a recount. If he does, the Summit County Clerk's Office will have to conduct the recount within seven days.
"It's about 30 hours of work," Kellogg said. "They will have to put all the ballots through the counting machine again. They will have to test the machine ahead of time for accuracy. After they do the recount, they will have to do an audit by hand of a certain percentage of the ballots to make sure that the hand-counted votes match the machine-counted votes."
Kellogg says this is something they rarely see, and with Thanksgiving coming up, this situation can be stressful.
"We always have that level of 'We've got to get this right,' because we have to maintain the confidence of our constituents and the voters, and so, yes, there is a degree of stress involved, because we want them to trust us," Kellogg said.
There has been no request for a recount so far.
Rubin did not have a comment Tuesday night, and Dickey says that while he is confident in the accuracy of the count, his opponent is entitled to a recount and will respect his decision to do so.
"We’re incredibly excited," Dickey said in a statement. "This is a tremendous milestone, and I’m so grateful for the energy, encouragement, and hard work so many of my supporters poured into the this race... This election did nothing but reinforce what an incredible community we have in Park City, and how lucky my family and I feel to live here. I’m looking forward to the incredible work ahead."
