TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Five Leon County races are headed to runoffs.
This happens when the minimum vote threshold of 50% plus 1 is not reached.
When it comes to why these races have to happen in November, Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Early says it’s just the law.
“It’s a state law, you know you have to win by a majority, unless it’s a general election, then it’s the largest number of votes, so I mean that’s pretty clearly defined in the statute, and we follow the statute,” said Early.
To get more insight into how these races end in runoffs, ABC 27 spoke with Hans Hassell, who is an assistant professor of political science at Florida State University.
He says the runoffs are held to make sure voters prefer the winning candidate.
“It’s kind of a concern that you don’t split the vote, and it sort of allows the public to express their preferences,” Hassell said.
One of the races heading to a runoff election is Tallahassee mayor.
Christine Dozier and incumbent Mayor John Daly were too close to call Tuesday night.
Their votes were separated by only 153 votes, according to the latest online data from the state election commission.
Daley says he knew this race would go into November, and he’s ready to get on with it.
“We will gather the team again, determine what the next strategy is. We know our messages work. We know people believe in my candidacy, and we’re going to do everything we can to get everyone out to vote,” Daley said.
Dozier and her team are taking the day to regroup and plan their next steps.
“What we’re doing is reorganizing our volunteers, again, bringing in new team members, that’s what we’re going to focus on for the next few days, and then we’ll be back to canvassing the neighborhoods and doing whatever we can . I did all summer and more,” Dozier said.
