ROANOKE, Va. – UPDATE
The recount for the Roanoke City mayor continues Friday morning for the second day as they are still working to determine the winner.
The city leaders and election volunteers will reconvene at 8 a.m. to continue the tallying process inside the Roanoke City Courthouse.
They say they’re expecting the count to be done by early afternoon.
On Thursday, counters made it through around two-thirds of the over 40,000 votes counted.
10 News will be back inside the courthouse as the recount takes place.
ORIGINAL STORY
On Thursday, there will be a recount in the race for Roanoke City mayor between candidates David Bowers and Joe Cobb.
That process will start at 8 a.m. at the courthouse. Courthouse staff told 10 News there will be eight scanning machines and 20 people involved.
They said a majority of those people will be feeding ballots into the machines, while four will be tasked with hand counting the ballots that can’t be scanned.
The process is expected to last all day.
Cobb and Bowers are separated by only 59 votes after more than 1,200 provisional ballots were counted in the days after the election. Because the race is within half of a percent margin, Bowers was able to request a recount paid for by the city.
When he requested the recount in November, Bowers told 10 News there were too many inconsistencies and irregularities in the mayor’s race.
Cobb also released a statement saying that he stands by the outcome and feels it reflects the votes of the people of Roanoke.
We will be inside the courthouse all day as the recount takes place.