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Recount in Tulsa mayoral race will likely conclude on Tuesday, barring unforeseen developments

More than 56,000 ballots had to be manually recounted after a Tulsa mayoral candidate challenged the results
Tulsa ballots in boxes, Sept. 5, 2024 More than 56,000 ballots had to be manually recounted after a Tulsa mayoral candidate challenged the results (Russell Mills/Russell Mills)

TULSA — The 32 precinct officials engaged in manually recounting nearly 57,000 ballots from the August 27th Tulsa mayoral election have made good progress since they began last Thursday, according to Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Gwen Freeman.

Updating KRMG late Monday afternoon, she said they had completed 120 of 150 precincts.

However some precincts are larger than others - and in terms of actual ballots, she said they had finished roughly 41,000 of the 55,611 ballots cast by Tulsa voters, so roughly 74 percent.

It means the county will likely make its deadline to get the correct ballot information to the printer, which reportedly needs that information by Tuesday.

It’s unclear if that means close of business Tuesday, though Freeman says that’s her assumption, and she’s fairly confident they’ll be able to complete the process by then.

That in turn allows the election board to mail ballots to overseas voters in time for them to fill them out and return them before the November 5th deadline.

Freeman says the ballots must be mailed by September 20th.

Mayoral candidate Brent VanNorman triggered the recount.

He came in third in the August 27th elections, behind Monroe Nichols and Karen Keith.

It doesn’t appear his challenge will be successful; Freeman characterized the number of ballots challenged by poll watchers as “minimal,” and of course not all challenges get upheld.

There would need to be well over 400 spoiled ballots, overvotes, or undervotes to affect the final result, and they would have to all be in VanNorman’s favor and against Keith, who finished second.

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