Mayoral candidate Lenny Curry received the endorsement of the Duval County Republican Executive Committee on Monday evening, but it didn’t come easy.
Curry was just shy of the needed two-thirds supermajority after ballots were counted the first time.
That vote didn’t include ballots from three new members who should have been allowed to vote, said party Chair Robin Lumb, who was elected in December.
However, Lumb said he mistakenly did not let them vote in the first round and decided to call for a second vote.
Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland, who was asked to count the ballots, said he was on the way home from the meeting when he got a call asking him to come back.
When he returned, Holland was told the three new members would be the only ones voting. He disagreed, saying you shouldn’t have an election where everybody knows the results, minus the new ballots.
He also said a lot of people had gone home and would not be available for the second election. There were 137 ballots cast in the first election and 100 in the second, Holland said. (He did not vote in either election.)
He suggested the committee send out a notice to members for a new election. Ultimately, the committee decided a second vote would be held Monday night.
Holland said he was not being critical of the committee’s decision, but was offering advice on how elections are typically run.
In the second election, Curry got 74 votes to Bishop’s 13, Holland said. The remaining 13 ballots were left blank.
Bishop criticized the process, saying a second noticed vote would have been the “right thing to do.”
However, he said he wasn’t going to fight the outcome.
“They did what they set out to do and that was to get him (Curry) the endorsement,” Bishop said.
Curry spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement, “We appreciate the grassroots supporters for asking Chairman Lumb to hold a vote, and for inviting Lenny to present his vision for Jacksonville’s future."
@writerchapman
@editormarilyn
(904) 356-2466