By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
DELAND, Fla. -- A mandatory recount shows Webster Barnaby prevailed over GOP rival Elizabeth Fetterhoff by 30 votes from Tuesday's primary for the newly-created District 29 State rep. seat and he now moves forward to face Democrat Rick Karl in the Nov. 8 general election.
The two Republicans who won two years ago in separate districts were forced to go head-to-head in Tuesday's primary due to re-districting with 14,882 votes counted. Unofficial vote counts showed Barnaby received 7,454 votes or 50.09 percent of the total, and Fetterhoff garnered 7,428 votes or 49.91 percent of the total votes cast by Republican voters.
"Those results mandated a recount since Mr. Barnaby and Ms. Fetterhoff were a .18 percent difference which caused the recount process," Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis said.
"Those results mandated a recount since Mr. Barnaby and Ms. Fetterhoff were a .18 percent difference which caused the recount process," Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis said.
Florida law requires a recount when the difference between candidates is less than one-half of 1 percent.
After re-tabulating over 15,000 ballots, separating the overvotes and undervotes, and working a 16-hour day by most Supervisor of Elections staff members in completing a manual recount, the results showed Barnaby received 7,450 votes (50.11 percent) and Elizabeth Fetterhoff received 7,420 votes (49.89 percent), a difference of 30 votes,
The mandatory recount on Friday by the three-member Volusia County Canvassing Board -- consisting of Lewis, former County Chair Frank Bruno, and County Judge David Foxman, who serves as its chair -- showed Barnaby picked up an additional four votes and was declared the official winner of the GOP primary race.
No change in votes counted in Ponce Inlet recount
A mandatory recount was also held to determine the winner of a close race for a seat on the Ponce Inlet Town Council.
The results of the Ponce Inlet Seat 4 race did not change: David Israel received 813 votes, and Joe Villanella received 819.
Villanella was declared the official winner in that race, Lewis said.
About the Byline Writer: Henry Frederick is a member of the working press and publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched in 2008 along the I-4 tourism corridor in greater Daytona Beach to Orlando from Lake Mary, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed 115 award-winning bylines in print & online. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University in 2019. He was a breaking news reporter (metro cops & courts beat) for the Daytona Beach News-Journal for nearly a decade. And Before that worked the same beat for The Journal-News/Gannett Suburban Newspapers in Rockland/Westchester counties, NY, dating back to 1989. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and covering other high-profile cases such as the George Zimmerman murder trial, Frederick has appeared on national crime shows on Discovery ID, Reelz, and the Oxygen Network series "Snapped" for his analysis. AWJ: