WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — Officials in the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections office are preparing for a recount as two candidates in the West Melbourne City Council race remain separated by a slim two-vote margin.

What You Need To Know

  • Two candidates in the West Melbourne city council race are separated by two votes

  • The slim margin will trigger a machine recount, followed by a hand recount if the results are still close

  • The machine recount begins on Nov. 12

On Friday, the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections began the canvassing process, and now the race is heading for a recount.

City Council candidates Adam Gaffney and Stephen Phrampus sat in on the canvassing meeting to oversee the process.

Currently, Phrampus is ahead of Gaffney with the vote tally coming out as 4,991 to 4,989. That’s a statistical tie with each earning 12.6% of the vote in a seven-candidate race.

“Definitely learning a lot — I’m very confident at the process here in Brevard County," Gaffney said. "I feel very confident, however, the vote goes that it’s counted accurately."

“Every vote counts, and it’s interesting," Phrampus said. "The only issue is we don’t know which one is a West Melbourne vote or not, so we are here for the process."

The board will meet again on Nov. 12 to conduct a machine recount for the city of West Melbourne.

If the machine recount results in a margin of .25% or less, then a manual recount will take place next.