LAWRENCE — After a narrow defeat Tuesday night, City Council District A candidate Joseph Armano will seek a manual ballot recount.
Armano, 27, lost to Sandy Almonte by 10 votes — a difference of 0.59 percent.
The political newcomer said he feels he owes a recount to the "843-plus people who voted for me."
"I received a number of calls from the residents of this district asking me to recount the ballots," Armano said in a statement to The Eagle-Tribune.
Armano knows his chances.
"The optical machines are 98 percent accurate, but there is a 2 percent margin for error and a 2 percent error represents approximately 33 votes, which is enough to effect the outcome of this election," he wrote.
Almonte, 37, has said she is confident she will prevail in a recount.
"I'm ready," she said Wednesday. "Spend some more of the city money we don't have. That's OK ... I am the person chosen by our district."
Armano has 10 days after the election to petition for a recount, according to Bilingual Elections Coordinator Rafael Tejeda. He will need at least 10 signatures from each of the precincts in his district to be eligible.
"Residents of our neighborhood offer encouragement and a willingness to sign the (recount) petition," he said.
Then it will be another 10- to 15-day wait before the recount takes place. During a recount, clerks manually count each ballot looking for any that are incorrectly marked as monitors from each campaign observe.
"If the recount shows that Sandy Almonte-Rosado is still ahead, I will extend my congratulations to her and will continue to contribute to our community as much as I can," Armano wrote.
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