LAWRENCE — Despite a number of close races in Lawrence, there will likely be just one recount this month, according to election officials.

Bilingual Elections Coordinator Rafael Tejeda said District A City Council candidate Joseph Armano, who lost by 10 votes to Sandy Almonte Tuesday night, is considering filing a petition to manually recount the ballots.

Armano did not return calls for comment yesterday. On his Web site, it reads, "Armano wins!!! +2 votes."

Almonte said she was confident she would prevail in any recount.

"I'm ready," she said. "Spend some more of the city money we don't have. That's OK ... I am the person chosen by our district. I believe this would be a waste of the city's money."

Tejeda said candidates have 10 days after the election to petition for a recount.

Candidates need 10 signatures from each of the precincts in their district to be eligible.

Then it will be another 10- to 15-day wait before the recount takes place.

"It will definitely be before Thanksgiving," Tejeda said. "This will be a small one. We'll be able to do it in one day."

During a recount, clerks manually count each ballot looking for any that are incorrectly marked as monitors from each campaign observe.

Tejeda said the voting machines are 98 percent accurate and can read the majority of voters' answers unless they fill the blanks outside of the lines or make their check marks or X's too small.

Candidates in other tight races have conceded.

School Committee member Peter Larocque said he would not ask for a recount after newcomer Mark Gray ousted him from his District E seat by 33 votes.

"I congratulate Mark, and I will move on," Larocque said Tuesday night.

District B City Council candidate Ruth Rojas said Tuesday night she would ask for a recount. But yesterday she said she had changed her mind and would concede.

Rojas lost to incumbent Grisel Silva by 21 votes. This was Rojas' third attempt at unseating Silva.

Rojas said something did not seem right about the district's election results, saying, "The numbers did not gel."

"I am going to concede," she said. "It's all politics."

Rojas had asked for a recount two years ago, when she lost to Silva by 28 votes. Silva ended up picking up two more votes in that recount.

Silva said she didn't think a recount was necessary in her race.

"If she doesn't trust the votes she got and doesn't trust the votes I got, have a recount," Silva said. "Maybe I'll gain more votes like last time. ... It's ridiculous. Just let it be."

All of the other elections were at least 100 votes apart.

"If it's more than 30 or 40 votes, it doesn't make sense to recount," Tejeda said.

Tight races in Lawrence

City Council District A

Sandy Almonte - 853

Joseph Armano - 843

City Council District B

Grisel Silva - 933

Ruth Rojas - 912

School Committee District E

Peter Larocque - 1,184

Mark Gray - 1,217

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