Runner-up calls for recount in Minneapolis City Council Second Ward race

Yusra Arab, who lost a Minneapolis City Council race last week by 19 votes, announced Friday that she intends to ask for a recount.

"The outcome is one of the closest margins Minneapolis has ever experienced in a City Council race using [ranked-choice] voting," Arab wrote on Twitter. "Regardless of the outcome, I want to ensure that all voices are heard and all votes are counted in this race."

Last week's municipal races drew the highest turnout in at least four decades as residents came out in droves to vote on ballot questions related to policing and rent control and to select a mayor and City Council. The race to represent the city's Second Ward was decided by the narrowest margin.

In the final round of ranked-choice voting tabulation, Robin Wonsley Worlobah, a Democratic socialist, beat Arab, a DFL member, 4,056 votes to 4,037.

Council Member Cam Gordon, who has represented the area since 2006, was eliminated in the second-to-last round. The ward stretches across the Mississippi River on the eastern side of the city and includes the Cedar Riverside, Longfellow and University of Minnesota neighborhoods.

Arab's announcement came Friday afternoon, hours after the current City Council certified the election results and the one-week period for challenging them opened.

City Clerk Casey Carl, who oversees elections, said Friday that Arab's campaign had contacted him about a possible recount, but he was still waiting to receive the formal request. Once that's received, the recount could occur as early as next week, he said.

During a recount, elections workers inspect each ballot. Campaigns can have observers there, who are allowed to challenge whether a ballot should be counted or if it should be 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.

Wonsley Worlobah said Friday afternoon that her campaign will "support a smooth and fair recount."

She said: "We trust that the city elections [workers] who oversee the recount, we trust that they will do a diligent job, enact a fair process and feel confident that the process will affirm the decisions made by thousands of working class people in our ward to elect us."

Liz Navratil • 612-673-4994