See when two Osceola County races from Tuesday are headed to machine recounts

  • Alyssa Noel (pictured) and Natalie Guzman remain locked in a recount for the School Board District 3 selection.
    Alyssa Noel (pictured) and Natalie Guzman remain locked in a recount for the School Board District 3 selection.
  • Alyssa Noel and Natalie Guzman (pictured) remain locked in a recount for the School Board District 3 selection.
    Alyssa Noel and Natalie Guzman (pictured) remain locked in a recount for the School Board District 3 selection.
    The Supervisor of Elections end-of-night count shows the razor-thin margin between Jim Moore and Alex Rodriguez for Seat 5. Whoever has the most votes after an SOE recount Saturday will face Kirk Zilke in a Nov. 3 runoff. (Graphic/Osceola County Supervisor of Elections)

    The Supervisor of Elections end-of-night count shows the razor-thin margin between Jim Moore and Alex Rodriguez for Seat 5. Whoever has the most votes after an SOE recount Saturday will face Kirk Zilke in a Nov. 3 runoff. (Graphic/Osceola County Supervisor of Elections)

    Should nothing change during its unofficial election results meeting on Friday morning, the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Office will conduct machine recounts on two local races from Tuesday's primary election.

    Per elections officials, when results are less than .5% difference, a machine recount is required, which will occur on Saturday at 9 a.m. After the machine recount, if results are less than a .25% difference, a manual recount is required.

    In a race that was separated by less than 10 votes much of the night during tabulation, the School Board District 3 election between Alyssa Noel, who currently holds a 29-vote lead (3,597 to 3,568, or 50.2% to 49.8%) over Natalie Guzman, is not officially decided.

     And, in the St. Cloud City Council Seat 5 race, while longtime police officer Kirk Zilke is on to a Nov. 3 runoff, his opponent is still to be decided. Alex Rodriguez and Jim Moore ended the night in a near 2,424 to 2,421 dead heat — a difference of just .04% — that may require a manual recount.

    "Currently, both the School Board District 3 race and the St. Cloud City race fall below the .5% mark," Supervisor of Elections Administrative Services Director Kari Ewalt said.

    Overall, voter turnout Tuesday in Osceola County reached 18%, 41,837 ballots cast out of 231,802 registered voters. That's up slightly from 17% in the 2024 primary, held during a presidential election year.

    Unlike in past years, Election Day voters (13,759) far outpaced Early Voting partakers (9,830). The highest number came from the 18,267 mail-in ballots received.

    More than 1.3 million Floridians voted in person on Tuesday, pushing the primary turnout to just over 25 percent, according to numbers posted by the Division of Elections. In total, nearly 3.36 million votes were cast in the primary out of 13.5 million registered voters in the state, per the News Service of Florida.