In the elections held on November 8, candidate Tim Lonergan secured his seat as one of the next Oakland Park City Commissioner with nearly 26% of the vote.
The second seat, however, has been deadlocked since the results were released. With oscillations during the count, candidates Steven Arnst and Letitia “Tish” Newbold took turns in second and third place. In the end, with just 39 votes, Arnst won the second seat or so it appeared.
The difference was so close that it triggered the requirement for a recount. According to the Broward Supervisor of Elections, Joe Scott’s, Twitter account the recount does not mean that something went wrong with the voting, but that the results were very close. Scott elaborated further in another post, conveying that “As per FL Law, a manual recount must be ordered if the 2nd set of unofficial returns indicates that a candidate was eliminated or defeated by 1⁄4 of 1% or less of the votes cast for the office”.
Recount Confirms Arnst as Winner of Second Seat
On November 14, the Broward SOE announced that the recount had been completed but their site said that Votes By Mail had not yet been completed. Tentative results showed Arnst in the lead by 40 votes. When the recount was completed and all votes by mail accounted for it confirmed that Arnst had won the second commission seat by 38 votes.
Final Results Require Certification By the State
The State will certify the final election results in the following weeks. Once that is done, Tim Lonergan and Steve Arnst will be sworn in. Their swearing in ceremony has been scheduled for Wednesday November 30th, 2022.
