KISSIMMEE, Fla. — After a recount, John Cortes will be facing Jackie Espinosa in November for the opportunity to be the mayor of Kissimmee.

What You Need To Know

  • John Cortes is now on November Ballot to face Jackie Espinosa in the Kissimmee mayoral race

  • Cortes gained two votes following Friday's recount

  • Officials say ballot-counting machines produced the same results Friday as they produced Tuesday

On Tuesday, Cortes, who came in second, finished four votes ahead of Olga Cariño, which triggered a recount.

Both candidates were present at the recount, and after several hours, Cortes is now the candidate who will officially face Espinosa in November.

“My next step is to go campaign, talk to people, learn what the people want to know,” Cortes said after Friday’s recount. “My next step is also to see what they need and keep ongoing to do the right thing.”

On Tuesday, Espinosa received just over 28% of the vote, followed by Cortes and Cariño, who both had about 24%. Kissimmee's current mayor, Olga Castano, received 18% of the vote.

After spending the morning and afternoon together for a recount, Cariño says she’ll stay on Cortes’ side, pledging her support to him.

“I want you to know that you count on me up to the end. You can be my platform and I am going to help you,” Cariño said, standing next to Cortes. “We need good people in our city leading our city.”

Every ballot at the supervisor of elections office went through the machines and came out with the same totals: 1224 for Cortes, and 1220 for Cariño.

In the morning, however, one more vote was given to Cortes because one ballot was cured. Then, in the manual recount, one ballot that registered “no vote” was a vote for Cortes due to the bubble next to Cortes’ name not being filled in correctly.

In all, 287 ballots were manually checked.