ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The margin in Tuesday night’s Pinellas County School Board District 6 race was razor-thin after preliminary counts, with Nancy Bostock and Amanda Lord separated by just seven votes.
After a machine recount did not produce a clear winner, election officials conducted a manual recount. Bostock was eventually declared the winner by 7 votes Friday evening.
Behind the glass, Pinellas County election workers were in the middle of the recount, with the focus on the District 6 school board race.
After all ballots were counted, including provisional ballots, the candidates remained separated by just seven votes.
“It just shows that what we’ve been saying, every vote counts,” said Heidi Davis of the League of Women Voters of St. Pete.
The organization encourages people to vote and provides information to help people get registered. Davis said primary voter turnout is usually lower than turnout during the general election.
“Is this proof? You know, you’ve got to get out there and vote. And come November we don’t want to see this low turnout. We want to see 80, 90 percent turnout,” Davis said.
Only 31.7% of registered voters participated in the school board race.
Lawyers, members of the public and the two candidates watched the recount.
“Waking up this morning and just realizing how close it was, it was exciting, you know, and we knew that we were going to be able to go into this process,” Lord said.
For Bostock, the recount was a new experience.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been involved in a recount process, and as a civics lesson, it’s wonderful, but the whole rest of it is very stressful,” Bostock said.
Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a constitutional law professor at Stetson University, said recounts do not happen often, but Florida has been known for close elections.
“People sort of forget, but when even our governor was first elected, that went to an automatic recount because between DeSantis and Andrew Gillum… that was within that margin of half of a percent,” Torres-Spelliscy said.
For Davis, the close race underscores the importance of voting in every election, whether it is a primary or a general election.
“This just goes to show that you need to get out there no matter what,” Davis said.
Officials say the District 6 race demonstrates that democracy has a process for verifying close election results and that every vote can matter — and can be the deciding vote in a razor-thin race.