A Worcester City Council race that ended nail-bitingly close appears to be headed for a recount.
At-Large City Council candidate Jermoh Kamara requested the hand recount after finishing 23 votes behind incumbent Morris Bergman in the Nov. 4 election. Worcester election officials have confirmed that Kamara submitted the signed petition paperwork necessary to initiate the recount.
The Worcester Board of Election Commissioners will meet Tuesday to certify the petitions, and officials plan to begin the recount process Thursday.
The results will determine who wins the final at-large seat on the City Council. According to the unofficial results, Kamara finished seventh out of 12 candidates for Worcester’s six at-large positions. She secured 9,334 votes compared to the 9,357 by Bergman, who finished sixth.
“Given the extremely narrow difference, it warrants a recount to ensure every vote is accurately counted and voters’ voices are heard,” Kamara wrote in the paperwork requesting the recount.
Worcester City Council experienced a huge shakeup in the Nov. 4 election with half a dozen new candidates winning seats on the body. Bergman was among five incumbents who retained their positions.
Bergman, who’s currently serving his sixth term on council, said he’s confident the recount will back up the election results. Still, he questioned why Kamara requested a hand recount that will cost the city more than $100,000 instead of a machine recount, which would have cost about $14,000.
“I have the utmost faith in the election, our election division and the technology and the machinery,” he said. “Certainly a machine recount would have been a lot less expensive on the taxpayer’s dime than a hand recount.”
Kamara, a former Worcester School Committee member, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The recount will involve workers at 30 different stations going through just over 26,000 ballots. Kamara and Bergman have the right to have supporters at each table observing the process to ensure every vote is counted appropriately. The observers will be able to dispute whether certain votes should count depending on the way the ballots were filled out. Bergman said he plans to have about 30 observers.
Worcester election officials say they plan to wrap up the recount process by Nov. 24.
