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19 votes separate candidates in Fernandina Beach city commission race following recount

The Nassau County Supervisors of Elections Office held a recount Wednesday for Seat 2 of the Fernandina Beach city commission race.

YULEE, Fla. — Only one voted changed in Wednesday's recount for the City of Fernandina Beach Commission race. The Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office held a recount in accordance with Florida law because of how small the margin of votes was between the two candidates in this race. Just 20 votes separated Genece Minshew and David Sturges ahead of the recount.

The recount started at 9 a.m. at the supervisor of election's office. It took about three hours for a machine recount of the nearly 10,000 ballots. That recount yielded no changes in the number of votes, so the Canvassing Board approved a motion to begin a manual recount.

During the manual recount, employees reviewed ballots that were set aside because they could not be read by the machine, neither candidate was selected, or both candidates were selected. Minshew, Sturges, and members of the Canvassing Board would then review those ballots. Nassau County Supervisor of Elections, Janet Adkins, said they also reviewed ballots that were duplicated on Election Day.

"Any ballot that gets duplicated in Nassau County is going to have at least four sets of eyes looking at it. Every single canvassing board member and the staff member that is duplicating it is reviewing it for accuracy," Adkins said.

Through this process, one vote changed in favor of Sturges which narrowed the difference to just 19 votes between the two candidates. By 2 p.m. Wednesday, the Canvassing Board approved the results in this recount with Minshew still winning the race. 

Sturges declined to do an on-camera interview, but still provided a comment. Although he is disappointed in the outcome of this race, he said he is proud of his campaign and grateful for everyone who voted for him. 

Minshew said she is feeling relieved following the recount.

"Very excited to be able to start doing the work of the people and the things we were elected to do. And I’m very excited to be working with this new city commission and new mayor because we have a lot of work to do. I’m just ready to get started," Minshew said.

The race was decided by just 19 votes, but more than 600 people did not mark either candidate on their ballots. Adkins hopes this sends a message to voters in future elections.

"Your vote matters. We take great care to make sure your vote is interpreted how you intended it to be. So the 633 individuals who cast a ballot in this election but did not make a selection in this race, your vote matters," Adkins said.

The Canvassing Board approved the results of this race Wednesday. They will meet again Friday to count overseas ballots. They are expected to certify the election then. On Monday, the supervisor of elections office will conduct an audit of all the ballots.

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