An election worker inspects a ballot. | Lynne Sladky, AP
Published on November 4, 2026 at 1:05 pm
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Just two votes currently separate the candidates for Seat 4 on the Atlantic Beach City Commission.
Lisa Herrold holds a razor-thin lead of 3,156 votes to Jennifer Lagner’s 3,154 votes.
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Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland explained during an interview on The Morning Show that a recount can’t begin for at least 10 days because they must wait for mail-in ballots to be finalized.
Holland said military members and civilians overseas have 10 days after Election Day for their mail-in ballots to arrive and be counted.
“There is enough out there with a two-vote difference to make a difference,” Holland said, describing a nail-biting see-saw night.
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He said at one point, Lagner had a two-vote lead, but when the vote-by-mail ballots were completed, Herrold picked up a five-vote lead, and then when provisional ballots were counted, Herrold’s lead dropped to just two votes.
READ MORE: Full election results for Florida and the First Coast
Herrold, a retired 63-year-old, responded to a News4JAX candidate survey, saying she believes the city’s three top issues are managing growth while preserving the character of Atlantic Beach, maintaining the city’s long-term financial health, and addressing infrastructure and public safety needs.
Lagner, a 58-year-old facilities administrator, broke the top three issues down to growth and development, infrastructure and resiliency, and community character and quality of life.
Beyond vote-by-mail delays, there are those whose vote-by-mail ballots might have been rejected, perhaps because the voter forgot to sign it. Those voters have until 5 p.m. Thursday to get any of those issues corrected so that their ballot can be counted.
And the candidates get a list of who those voters are, so they could potentially reach out and encourage them to fix the issues before the deadline.
Once all the ballots are finalized, if the difference is within 0.5 of a percent, an automatic mechanical ballot recount is triggered.
If the difference is within 0.25 of a percent, then the canvassing board will look at the ballots that were rejected for overvotes or undervotes.
These votes would be from Election Day … since ballots that indicate an overvote are rejected by the election machines during early voting.
