Simplified: It's recount day! It feels like that scene in "Frozen" where the princess wakes up and is like "It's coronation day" and then sings a whole song about how it feels like it's felt like forever for the day to come. Anyway, here's what we know about the mayoral recount.

Why it matters

  • Sioux Falls mayoral candidate Christine Erickson led the June 23 run-off election by two votes over candidate Jamie Smith – leaving it too close to call with an inevitable recount.
  • Now, the recount day is here. Both Erickson and Smith have identified attorneys to be on the recount board – Justin Smith for Erickson and Matthew Tysdal for Smith – and the two have agreed upon the third member, retired circuit judge Rodney Steele.
  • The recount board is set to meet at 9 a.m. today in the Minnehaha County Commission room on the third floor of the county admin building. There, they'll re-count the votes, discuss any provisional ballots, ballots that were thrown out, over votes, under votes, and, hopefully, at the end of the day, figure out who the next mayor will be.
"Once the board convenes in the morning at 9 a.m., it’s pretty much their show," City Clerk Jermery Washington said. "We’re not sure how it will go or how long it’ll take."

Tell me more

The last recount election was in 2020 in a City Council race between Theresa Stehly and Alex Jensen ultimately ended with Jensen maintaining his lead.

  • Before the recount, Jensen had 109 votes over Stehly. After the recount, his lead dropped to 97.
  • In that scenario, it wasn't enough to change the outcome, but in the mayoral election's two-vote margin, a dozen votes one way or another could change the race's outcome entirely.
FAQ: What we know about the mayoral election recount process
It’s historic any way you slice it. In an election with more than 36,000 votes, only two separated the two mayoral candidates, Christine Erickson and Jamie Smith, Tuesday night. So, what happens next?
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

The city has also stated that it expects the recount process to take longer today than it did in the 2020 election.

  • In that race, it took about 10 hours to go through about 29,000 ballots. This time around, we've got about 36,000 ballots.

So, will we know the mayor by the end of the day?

🤷‍♀️ Yes? Probably?

All I know is, if they're still counting by dinner time, I'm getting myself a traditional election night pizza (round three).