Proof that one vote counts; recount Saturday in Naples Mayoral and City Council races

In both races, it was too close to call without the recount.

“Machine recounts have been triggered in both races,” the Collier Supervisor of Elections, Melissa Blazier, told WINK News. “Once the machine recounts have been completed, we will go into manual recounts on both.”

While former City Councilman Gary Price declined to comment, current Naples mayor Teresa Heitmann says this recount isn’t something she’s worried about.

As of March 23, the unofficial machine recount has Hietmann leading the election by 22 votes up from 12 votes in the original count. The results will be officially certified on Friday.

In her 18 years in office, Melissa Blazier said she hasn’t seen anything like this happen before.

“We have never had a recount in the city of Naples,’ said Blazier, “But recounts are common…It doesn’t mean that there was anything wrong with the conduct of election, it just means that we have a close result. And so we’re gonna go ahead and recount it and ensure the accuracy of the votes.”

As of 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, no new results have been called for the City Council race.

William Kramer and Linda Penniman have 20 percent of the vote for Naples City Council. Bernie Barton and Tony Perez-Benitoa are both at 17 percent.

Recounting votes takes time, precision, and patience. A month’s worth of work is needed to be done in a day.

“It’s just about 8,600 ballots that we’re going to read tabulate and we’re going to do that all in in a few hours today,” said Blaizer, “So yes, it’s all hands on deck in the elections office. We’ve got staff showing up in shifts throughout the day. And we’re gonna get the job done.”

On Friday, March 29, the elections office will review any overseas, vote-by-mail ballots and officially certify the races.

The recount happens at the Supervisor of Elections office, 3750 Enterprise Ave., Naples, FL 34104.