Keefe wins weekend recount, Rizzo picks-up five votes

By Barbara Taormina

On Saturday, staff from the city’s election commission department spent about nine hours hand counting the 9,660 ballots cast in the recent mayoral election.

The numbers did not change much from the results posted on election night. Mayor-elect Patrick Keefe gained one vote during the recount and ended with 4,933 votes and Councillor-At-Large Dan Rizzo, who petitioned for the recount, picked up five votes for final tally of 4,570. The recount totals show seven fewer write-in votes but the same number of blanks, 147.

Prior to the recount, Rizzo said he did not expect to overturn the election. However, he had questions about the way some votes were tabulated, and a recount was the only way to get a complete picture of the election.

“We got the information we needed,” said Rizzo. ‘Were still just assessing everything. Just making sure about everything. There were a lot of affirmations we wanted to look at. We just wanted to make sure everything was done correctly,”

As for next steps, Rizzo said he hasn’t made any decisions yet.

“It’s doubtful I’ll run for council again,” he said. “But right now, we’re just wrapping up the 2023 election.”

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