Sioux Falls City Council Recount Reveals Jensen the Winner

The city of Sioux Falls will have a new person next month filling the city's at-large council seat.

Dakota News Now is reporting challenger Alex Jensen was officially declared the winner over incumbent Theresa Stehly on Wednesday night (June 24). The news comes after the recount process finally concluded after several hours of re-processing thousands of ballots.

The results of the (June 2) Sioux Falls City Council election revealed a very close margin of victory for challenger Alex Jensen. 109 votes separated Jensen and incumbent Theresa Stehly at that time.

The razor-thin number of votes between the two candidates forced a recount to be conducted on Wednesday. In the end, Jensen was declared the winner by a total of 97 votes.

The recount tally showed 13,791 votes for Jensen, compared to Stehly's 13,694.

According to Dakota News Now, a three-person board was tasked with handling the recount procedure that took place in the Sioux Falls Election Center. The board spent approximately 10 hours going through about 29,000 ballots between the three of them.

Both candidates were on hand to to oversee the recount process.

Stehly told Dakota News Now, "Of course I'm praying that I would like to prevail but, at the end of the day, whoever it is, I say best wishes, and let's continue great representation for our people."

While Jensen said this about the recount procedure, “I think the thing that we’re looking for is an accurate result that keeps the integrity of the election, you know, fair and balanced and honest. We’ll see how that result plays out.”

Jensen is expected to be confirmed to his new position sometime in July.

Source: Dakota News Now