An updated and still-unofficial vote count by the City of Boston’s Elections Department shows an even narrower margin of votes separating City Council At-Large candidates Julia Mejia and Alejandra St. Guillen than the startling 10-vote gap between the two candidates tallied by the end of the city’s municipal election last week.
According to a still-ongoing tally of votes, Mejia, who came out as the fourth-place winner of the seat just 10 votes ahead of St. Guillen, is now only five votes ahead of St. Guillen.
The latest count, released by Boston officials Wednesday, does not constitute the city’s final “official” vote count.
The new number does not include overseas and military absentee ballots still being collected and which will be totaled “on or after Friday, November 15,” according to a letter to candidates from the city’s Election department.
The updated vote totals, the letter says, reflect ballots that were “inadvertently not transferred to the total tally sheets that comprised the unofficial results that were made public on November 5, 2019.”
Those ballots had been “counted by hand, tallied and recorded in the clerk’s book at the appropriate precincts after the close of polls on November 5.”
Meija was not immediately available for comment.
St. Guillen announced her intention to pursue a recount the day after the election. Her campaign has begun collecting the required signatures.
Candidates must petition for any recounts ward by ward for each of the city’s 22 wards they want recounted by submitting at least 50 resident signatures from each. Reached by phone Wednesday, St. Guillen said she will continue pursuing a citywide recount.
Below are the unofficial, updated results obtained on Nov. 13, 2019 from the City of Boston of the Nov. 5, 2019 Boston City Council election.
