VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Councilmen-elect David Nygaard, John Moss, and Louis Jones have retained their leads in three Virginia Beach city council races after a lengthy recount process.
On Thursday, election officials determined Nygaard, Moss, and Jones are set to join city council, pending the certification of the recount tally on Friday morning.
After the recount was finished, Moss and Jones had extended their leads over opponents Dee Oliver and Brad Martin. In the Beach District, the gap between David Nygaard and John Uhrin tightened, but Nygaard kept his lead in the race.
"I'm kind of relieved," Nygaard said. "It's nice to be past the situation and to be able to focus on serving the people."
Election officials ran all three recounts concurrently, leading to more hand-counting of votes.
The final day of counting included some drama. Nygaard said he caught a hand-counting math error that would've gifted Uhrin 166 votes. He said he helped catch other errors earlier in the week.
"They're significant math errors and they could change the election if we didn't catch them," he said.
Virginia Beach registrar Donna Patterson said there were a few counting mistakes over the 4-day process, but she said she promises every one was corrected.
"Those are the checks and balances we have, and I know it worked out," Patterson said.
She said the unprecedented move to run all three recounts at once went as smoothly as she could've hoped. The process will cost the city and taxpayers close to $150,000.
Nygaard still argued that each recount should've been handled individually to reduce the number of hand-counted ballots, but said he's close to putting the process behind him.
"I'd have a great sense of relief and be able to focus on learning the new job because there's a lot to learn," he said.
The recount results will be certified in court Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.
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