Recount for North Sioux City election changes result for one race

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KTIV) - Two of the races for North Sioux City’s recent election were close enough for the votes to be recounted. Now we have the results of those recounts and one of the races has come out differently.

The recounts were done on Tuesday, April 15 for the 1-year commissioner position and for the 4-year commissioner position.

The 1-year commissioner race is between David James Wilch and Vincent D. Tucker. In the original count, Wilch was declared the winner with 401 votes and Tucker finished just two votes behind with 399 votes. That’s a difference of 0.25%

In the recount on Tuesday, the winners switched for the 1-year commissioner race. The recount now had Tucker with more votes, having 400 total, while Wilch had 398 votes.

The four-year commissioner race is between Lynn Hoffman and Kodi Benson. Hoffman was declared the winner with 399 votes. Benson was just shy with 384 votes. That’s a 1.9% difference.

After the recount, Hoffman still had more votes with 397, while Benson had 383 votes.

On Tuesday, April 8, residents of North Sioux City went to the polls to cast a ballot to fill the city’s new commission. Then on Monday, April 14, the canvassing board went through the vote tallies from the election to approve the results. However, city leaders shared that there were requests for recounts, so the votes were counted once more on Tuesday, April 15.

The re-canvassing after this recount was scheduled for Thursday, April 17. But that has been changed; the re-canvassing for the recount is now scheduled for Tuesday, April 22, at 6:30 p.m. That is a half hour before the commission’s 7 p.m. meeting, where they are expected to swear in the winners of this election.

A recount is allowed in any race where the vote margin between two candidates is two percent or less of the total votes cast. If any of the candidates in that race wanted a recount, they could request one. But now that a recount has been done, city officials tell KTIV no additional recounts can be requested.

You can see the original results of the North Sioux City election here.

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