Camara Blue waited at the Jefferson County courthouse for news about the final vote tally in his race against Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens. After the last of the provisional and absentee ballots were counted, he still fell 392 votes short of winning the race. (Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.)
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Camara Blue’s right leg nervously shook in his brown alligator boot as he waited for provisional ballots to be counted Tuesday afternoon. He acknowledged that wait required the patience of Job.
“Yes,” he said. “It’s a process. It’s a process.”
More than 3½ hours after the meeting of the Election Commission began, Blue learned the still-unofficial results of his District 3 Jefferson County Commission race with incumbent Republican Jimmie Stephens.
Blue trailed in the race by 392 votes after the count was complete, closing the 593-vote gap shown on election day but not enough to change the outcome. The commission president had 26,609 votes, or 50.33%, followed by Blue with 26,217 votes, or 49.59%.
Blue said he will be seeking a recount in the race for “just clarity, peace of mind.”
Barry Stephenson, head of the county’s board of registrars, said every vote has been counted in that race.
“Military, overseas, everything’s in,” Stephenson said. “All provisionals and all absentee overseas is in. There were six absentee (ballots from) overseas that were also included today. We presented 481 to be counted.”
Results of last week’s election become official at noon on Friday, after which a recount can be filed.
If the margin of victory were one-half of 1%, the county would shoulder the expense. The District 3 race had a margin of .74.%
Jackie Anderson-Smith, the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk, said a recount would be very much like the actual election.
“We’d have to reproduce the same environment as a regular election, so it would be the same thing,” she said, saying that sufficient voting machines and personnel would have to be at each voting place.
When asked how much a recount would cost, Anderson-Smith said, “A lot.”
“I can’t give you an exact amount,” she said. “If he (Blue) does choose to do the recount, he will be given the number.”
