Recount set for Friday in Minneapolis City Council Second Ward race

It will be the first full recount in a city race decided by ranked-choice voting.

November 15, 2021 at 11:20PM
Minneapolis elections workers will inspect each ballot cast in the race, and campaign observers will have the change to challenge the inclusion of any ballots that appear to have errors. Shown here, an election judge looked over a blank test ballot at the Elections and Voter Services Office in Minneapolis earlier this fall. (Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Minneapolis officials will begin a recount Friday morning in a City Council race decided by just 19 votes.

At 9 a.m., election workers will begin inspecting ballots cast in the contest to represent the Second Ward on the city's east side, which includes the Cedar-Riverside and University of Minnesota neighborhoods.

Democratic Socialist Robin Wonsley Worlobah won the race with a final-round tally of 4,056 votes, defeating DFL candidate Yusra Arab, who received 4,037. Incumbent Cam Gordon, who has represented the area since 2006, was eliminated in the second-to-last round.

Arab requested the recount Monday after making an announcement last week on Twitter. City officials said this is the first time they will conduct a full recount in a race decided by ranked-choice voting.

The process will be open to the public at the Elections & Voter Services building, 980 E. Hennepin Av. The top two candidates can invite observers, who will be allowed to challenge whether a ballot should be counted or disqualified based on an error, such as a stray mark. Each challenged ballot goes to the City Council, which acts as the canvassing board that will decide whether to count that vote.

about the writer

about the writer

Liz Navratil

Reporter

Liz Navratil covers communities in the western Twin Cities metro area. She previously covered Minneapolis City Hall as leaders responded to the coronavirus pandemic and George Floyd’s murder.

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