As the March 19 municipal elections wrapped up, two communities in Palm Beach County still are facing some unfinished business for their elections. Wellington faces two runoff elections, and Lake Worth Beach faces a runoff election.
Here’s what they expect to see in the coming days.
Wellington
In Wellington, an automatic recount was triggered for candidates in the Village Council Seat 4 race.
Five candidates ran for that seat, but voting results for two came close to each other — as of late Tuesday night and with all precincts reporting, candidate Shelly Lariz Albright had 2,239 votes while one of her opponents, Maria Antuña, had 2,270 votes, which is within a 0.5% difference, leading to the initial call for a recount.
But according to the village of Wellington clerk, the recount was ultimately waived. However, that race will still go to a runoff, said Wendy Sartory Link, the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections. This is essentially an additional election after a tie or inconclusive result.
Another Wellington runoff is set for the Seat 1 Council seat between Amanda Silvestri, who got about 31% of the vote, the highest of the four candidates vying for the seat, and Bob Margolis, who got about 26% of the votes.
The village “actually has to call for the runoff and call for the recount,” Sartory Link said.
According to the village charter, if a candidate wins by less than 35%, a runoff occurs.
Lake Worth Beach
Another runoff may also take place in the Lake Worth Beach race for mayor between incumbent Betty Resch and one of her opponents, Andy Amoroso.
While Resch received about 600 more votes than Amoroso, she only received about 48% of the vote, according to the most recent results from the supervisor of elections.
Winning by less than 50% plus one automatically triggers a runoff in Lake Worth Beach.
These runoff elections will take place on April 2 and are in-person voting only.
In-person voter turnout in Palm Beach County on Tuesday was two or three times higher than any other county in the state, Sartory Link said. Palm Beach County is one of the most populous counties in the state, and a majority of its total 39 municipalities had elections, figuring into the large turnout.
Between 40 and 50 “provisional ballots” will go before the county’s Canvassing Board on Thursday afternoon, she said. Provisional ballots are those where a voter’s eligibility is in question, perhaps because the voter didn’t have ID. And then that voter is given some time to address the issue so the ballot can be counted.
For the municipality election results, certification is expected to be completed after the Canvassing Board meeting on Thursday.
Besides minor hiccups, such as jammed machines here and there or poll workers not showing up to their stations, Sartory Link said the county “had a really good election.”
In Broward County, the scene was similar, with Lisa Arneaud, a spokesperson for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, writing in an email “everything went smoothly.”
No recounts or runoffs were triggered in any of the Broward races, she added.
Sun Sentinel staff writer Lisa J. Huriash contributed to this news article.
