Lowe Lead Grows as Recount Begins

The razor-thin lead held by Craig Lowe, who won the mayoral election in Gainesville, Fla. by 35 votes this week, grew to 42 Thursday as officials prepared to start the automatic recount Friday.

Lowe, a city commissioner, defeated Don Marsh by a slim margin Tuesday and his victory triggered the recount. If his lead holds, he will become the first openly gay mayor for a North Florida city, having overcome campaign attacks including a church lawn sign calling for "No Homo Mayor."

According to The Gainesville Sun, "The city's canvassing board, which oversees elections, reviewed the 21 provisional ballots in the mayoral runoff election, tossing out four of them and accepting 17: 12 for Lowe and five for Marsh."

The Alachua County elections supervisor said the machine recount is likely to finish by Friday evening, according to the Sun. If the margin between Lowe and Marsh dips below 0.25 percent, there will be a hand recount.