Zoltanski clinches election becoming first female mayor of Sandy
Nov 22, 2021, 5:54 PM | Updated: Nov 23, 2021, 9:17 am
SANDY, Utah — Sandy’s City Council met again this evening and approved Monica Zoltanski as the city’s new mayor-elect, deeming no recount was necessary.
After refusing to certify the results of the mayoral election Friday, they called yet another special meeting with only one item on the agenda: for the council to consider approving the election results in the race for mayor.
UPDATE: Sandy City Council votes unanimously to CERTIFY the election results.
Monica Zoltanski is officially the mayor-elect.
State officials told city that results don’t qualify for recount.@KSL5TV @kslnewsradio @KSLcom pic.twitter.com/gNlhWAjqPF
— Ladd Egan (@laddegan) November 23, 2021
Last Thursday night, the Sandy City Council refused to certify the race, saying it wanted a recount.
Candidate for mayor, and council member, Monica Zoltanski was the declared winner. She had a lead of just 21 votes over Jim Bennett.
But then there was some confusion as to whether state law allowed for a recount of the ranked-choice voting results.
Over the weekend, state officials weighed in including Hayden Loftus, and elections specialist with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, saying that the Sandy mayoral race was just two votes shy of getting that recount.
“It’s a close race and we recognize that,” Loftus said. “But the formula that’s put forth in code is what we have to go by and when you plug in the numbers it doesn’t meet that automatic recount threshold.”
A letter from the Assistant Attorney General to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office said: “The county clerk and your office have correctly interpreted and conducted the statutory procedure.” And that: “There is nothing in the Election Code that prohibits or requires the clerk to conduct a recount.”
The state elections office said that the ranked-choice pilot program has only been used in about two dozen cities in Utah… and that there are looking at clarifying a couple of areas of the law.
“So it’s something that we’re working through,” Loftus said. “It’s not something where code is set and has been done for years and years and so we realized there would be some growing pains but we feel that we’ve addressed those and we are ready to continue moving forward.”
The state elections office said this is something it hasn’t seen before: a city council refusing to certify the results.
