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South Daytona's special election Tuesday giving Ralph Schoenherr a four-vote margin of victory over Joe Piggotte Jr. for a vacant City Council seat, shows every vote counts. A recount Thuersday morning confirms the exact vote difference.SOUTH DAYTONA – A recount of the ballots this morning for Ralph Schoenherr's narrow victory victory over Joe Piggotte was a piece of cake, considering only 12 percent of the more than 7,700 registered voters in South Daytona cast ballots on Tuesday.
The recount at South Daytona City Hall confirmed the identical four-vote margin of victory for Schoenherr to fill a vacant spot on the City Council.
Schoenherrr, a former public works director in this city, won with 463 votes to 459 votes for Joe Piggotte Jr., Spruce Creek High School assistant principal and son of a longtime mayor here.
The slim margin from Tuesday’s election triggered an automatic machine recount of votes. Schoenherr fills out the term of Ron Clifton, which ends in 2012. Clifton abruptly resigned in January in the wake of an FBI probe of misconduct by a public official. S
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Joe Piggotte Jr., comes up short despite strong name recognition with his late father, Joe Piggotte Sr. as former mayor, for whom the Piggotte Community Center is named.Schoenherr earned his victory after losing three campaigns for City Council here in 2003, 2005 and 2010. This was Piggotte Jr.’s first run for public office. His father, Piggotte Sr., served as mayor from 1988 to 2005, before his death in 2008. His sister, Juliane Piggotte is a circuit Judge in Volusia County.
A resident of South Daytona since 1974, Schoenherr said his priorities after being sworn in Tuesday will be maintaining the city’s finances and preserving services such as public safety and public recreation in these difficult economic times.
Fast Facts
The margin of victory by Ralph Schoenherr was a mere.043 percent, triggering the automatic recount.