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City to have second election for tied city council seat

City to have second election for tied city council seat
Posted at 10:44 PM, May 15, 2015
and last updated 2018-07-24 21:29:44-04

The city of Rogers will have a second election for a city council seat after a single vote that could have settled a tied race, was not counted.

It is unclear the reason behind the vote not being counted by the registrar. However, Friday was the final day for the voter to make the provisional ballot count.

A person who votes provisionally has six days, which is referred to as a cure period, to go to a local county registrar and present a form of photo identification or submit a temporary affidavit for the provisional ballot to be accepted.

As of 3 p.m. this afternoon, the voter had not cured the provisional ballot. The deadline to do so was at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Teresa Mejia and Billy Crow each received 40 votes on Saturday. 

Mejia was surprised to tie with Crow for the one-year-term city council member at large position because her opponent is a former mayor.

The seat could have been determined by luck but the candidates chose to have another election.

"I didn't want to flip a coin because I feel the community of Rogers, they need to express their votes opposing to the coin,” said Mejia.

She expects a larger turnout for the second election. Crow lives right across the street from Mejia but did not want to comment.

Mayor Tammy Cockrum said the city has a tentative plan to host the second election on June 13 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Early voting would run from June 1 until June 9 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

She said the city will pay for it but she does not estimate it to be more than $1,000.

The city council will decide on Monday whether to approve this tentative plan.