By Mary Hladky
Mayoral candidate Andy Thomson gained seven votes when the final votes were counted in the city's election on Thursday, while opponent Mike Liebelson gained 11 votes.
As a result, Thomson, with 7,569 total votes, remains two votes ahead of Liebelson’s 7,567.
But such a slim margin doesn’t cinch the election for Thomson yet.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office has at least one more recount to make -- and probably two -- that will take place on Friday.
The election results first posted after polls closed on March 10 showed Thomson trailing by 26 votes. But a final update that night showed him ahead by six votes.
That lead has now dropped to two votes.
The Thursday tally was done after determinations were reached on provisional ballots that had been cast on Tuesday, It also included problem mail-in ballots where voters "cured," or corrected, signature problems on their ballots by Thursday's 5 p.m. deadline.
The first Friday recount will be a machine recount of the votes. If the two candidates are still within 0.25% of each other after that, then there will be a hand recount of overvotes and undervotes. Overvotes take place when voters select more ballot choices than they are permitted to. Undervotes are when they choose too few.
The election was a watershed event for Boca Raton, with three City Council candidates backed by anti-development group Save Boca winning election.
Voters also soundly defeated the city’s effort to redevelop its downtown government campus and also killed city plans to replace its old police headquarters with a new police campus on city-owned land.
First-time candidate Liebelson is not a Save Boca member but supported many of that grass-roots group’s positions. Thomson is an incumbent first elected to the council in 2018.
In a strange twist of fate, Thomson also faced a recount that year.
Sixty-seven hours after the polls closed and following six hours of recounting ballots, Thomson won by 32 votes.
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