Crystal Council Recount Complete: Budzisewski Wins by One Vote
After a historic recount, the results for Crystal’s Ward 3 city council race came out the same: incumbent John Budziszewski defeated Wade Girard by a single vote.
Before the numbers were in on Tuesday morning, the Crystal City Hall was flush with the sound of shuffling paper.
“This is kind of a big day for Crystal,” said City Manager Adam Bell.
Bell described Thursday’s recount as a historic moment.
“We do not have a record of a recount for a city position occurring, at least for the last collective knowledge of at least 25-30 years,” he said.
In the original count, incumbent John Budziszewski had 1,129 votes, while challenger Wade Girard earned 1,128 votes. The one-point difference was also a first for the city.
City staff work to count as representatives, including candidate Wade Girard, look on.
This was cause for a recount, which the candidate with lesser votes can request. Girard requested the recount telling CCX News that he owed it to his voters. The recount is paid for by the city.
“We brought all the ballots here. They’re all in sealed cases,” Bell explained.
It was a hand recount, so two city staff members unsealed the ballots and took them out to sort them. After sorting, they counted the ballots again by hand. The process was overseen and coordinated by Crystal City Clerk Chrissy Serres.
Counting On
Hennepin County was also represented at the recount. Jim Howitt, who supervises the county’s absentee ballots, also works on recounts. He oversaw to help answer questions.
“They’re looking at the ballots for voter intent,” Howitt explained. “So that could mean that if the oval was marked too lightly, or the voter made the mark outside of the oval– but it’s clear who they wanted to vote for.”
The hand counters are set to look for human error. Candidate representatives can also point out concerns.
“The candidates, or their representatives are here, and so they can challenge those decisions if they think a marking is ambiguous enough that it shouldn’t have been put in one candidate’s pile or another,” Howitt said.
Howitt said this isn’t the only race in the county eligible for the publicly funded recount.
“This year, I believe we had six races that… were within that threshold,” Howitt said.
Of those six, two candidates conceded, two challenged and the other two have yet to decide.
At the end of the day, the city council will canvass those ballots and assess challenges to determine the official total.
“That’s generally it– it’s just a lot of sorting and then counting, and getting new totals based on the intent of the voters,” Howitt said.
Same Result
When the recount wrapped up Thursday afternoon, the numbers went unchanged.
Budziszewski took 1,129 votes, while Girard came in second once again with 1,128 votes.
The Crystal City Council canvassed the recount results to declare an official winner Thursday afternoon. As of publishing time, the results were not official.
