A recount begins on Monday for one of the races from this week's city primary election in Davenport. Thursday afternoon the Scott County Board, first officially certified Tuesday's results, then approved a recount for the mayoral race.
Dan Portes requested the recount after finishing third, and not qualifying for the November ballot. But he's just eight votes behind Rita Rawson - a difference of only two-tenths of one per cent.
Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz says finishing within one per cent allows Portes to ask for a recount.
"I have faith in the voting equipment - I think it's people who make mistakes. And so the likelihood is it could take them a couple of times because they may be off one or two and they'll have to re-start again. Whereas, my experience with the machines is that once we do it, it automatically comes up the same way. "
He's asked for a hand recount of all the votes for mayor last Tuesday - about 6,500 in all - so Moritz estimates it will take about two days.
Each of the two candidates, Rawson and Portes, have chosen a judge, then the two judges picked a third judge, and the three judges will recount the ballots, with help from the auditor's office.
The vote totals are slightly higher than the numbers announced Tuesday night - that's because absentee ballots could be received as late as noon Thursday and still be counted as long as they were mailed on time.