Korn, Usan Declared Winners In Broward Tight Races

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Broward election workers spent part of their Labor Day recounting some votes from last week's primary and two close races were officially decided.

A machine recount of ballots in a hard-fought race for a school board seat in Broward County has determined a winner.

The race pitted incumbent Donna Korn against Elijah Manley and Ryan Petty. Korn held a slight lead in the race and Petty, a Parkland dad who lost his daughter in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre and ran on the issue of school security, came in second.

Near the closing time of the polls on election day, officials say they received 5,000 vote-by-mail ballots that had not been tabulated.

It turned out that number was more like 9,000 ballots.

In the end, Korn won the race with a scant majority of 50.4 percent. If she had dropped below 50 percent, there would have been a runoff election with Ryan.

Another race affected by the last minute vote by mail ballots was the for 17th Judicial Court Judge, Group 42.

In that race, Michael Usan was declared the winner, defeating Richard Kaplan by less than 400 votes.

The elections supervisor Brenda C. Snipes blamed a surge in late mail-in ballots for the delay in declaring a final winner.

Attorney Ben Kuehne, who represents Kaplan, said his client is concerned that so many vote-by-mail ballots were not counted until after election night.
Kaplan now has 10 days to file a court challenge.