Sixteen affidavit votes did little to change the outcome of Tuesday’s Ward 5 special election.
Stephen Jones and Marthalie Porter will head to a runoff after no candidate managed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote final tallies Wednesday confirmed. The candidates are two of four who were competing to replace former councilman Kabir Karriem.
Karriem left his seat in December to begin his term in the state House of Representatives.
Jones and Porter will face off again on March 1.
Jones received 254 votes, or about 30 percent, in Tuesday’s election. Porter garnered 354, or 42 percent.
Officials added 16 affidavit ballots to the tally Wednesday morning. Jones received eight votes, pushing his total to 262. His overall percentage remained largely unchanged.
Third-place candidate Gary Jefferson received the other eight votes, pushing his final total to 231 for just less than 27 percent.
Porter’s final vote percentage dipped slightly to 41 percent.
Fourth-place candidate Cadarrall Eddings received 9 total votes, or about 1 percent.
All told, Ward 5’s 3,175 registered voters cast 856 ballots in Tuesday’s election for a turnout of 27 percent.
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