The gap narrowed to just 20 votes separating the 7th through 10th place candidates (Kelley, Carlone, Mazen, vanBeuzekom) with only 6 votes separating the 9th place candidate (Nadeem Mazen) and the 10th place candidate (Minka vanBeuzekom) in the decisive 16th Count. There will be one last official count on Fri, Nov 15 that will include any overseas absentee ballots and provisional ballots. In some recent elections, due to the method of surplus distribution, the addition of just a few extra ballots has caused swings of 20 or more votes in the tabulation.

In the Recount , neither the winners nor the quota (1775) nor the order of election changed, though the margins increased to 20 votes between 9th and 10th Place and 48 votes separating the 7th Place through 10th Place candidates in the deciding (17th) round. One minor candidate (Ron Peden) had in excess of 50 #1 votes in the Recount which added an additional transfer round.

The original Final City Council results (Nov 15, 2013) had a a 14 vote margin between the 9th Place candidate (Dennis Carlone) and the 10th Place candidate (Minka vanBeuzekom) in the deciding 16th Round. The were also only 30 votes separating the 7th Place through 10th Place candidates (Craig Kelley, Nadeem Mazen, Dennis Carlone, Minka vanBeuzekom. This led to a petition for a recount by Minka vanBeuzekom which took 9 days starting on Mon, Dec 2 and finishing on Thurs, Dec 12, 2013.

Cambridge Candidate Pages - 2013

2013 City Council Campaign Receipts

Campaign Finance – 2013 Cambridge City Council candidates

Cambridge School Committee 2013 Campaign Finance Summaries

Preliminary 2013 Cambridge Election Results (Nov 5, 2013)

City Council (in order of election): Leland Cheung, David Maher, Dennis Benzan, Tim Toomey, Denise Simmons, Marc McGovern, Craig Kelley, Dennis Carlone, Nadeem Mazen. [Detailed Report]

Incumbents defeated : Ken Reeves, Minka vanBeuzekom

School Committee (in order of election): Patty Nolan, Fred Fantini, Richard Harding, Kathleen Kelly, Fran Cronin, and Mervan Osborne. [Detailed Report]

Incumbents defeated : None

The preliminary City Council election quota was 1713 with 17,128 valid ballots counted. Only Leland Cheung exceeded quota with a surplus of 604 ballots.

The preliminary School Committee election quota was 2292 with 16,040 valid ballots counted. Three candidates reached quota on the 1st Count: Patty Nolan with a huge surplus of 1502 ballots, Fred Fantini with a surplus of 493 ballots, and Richard Harding with 3 surplus ballots.

There are an additional 710 additional City Council ballots that will be inspected and included on Wednesday. Many of these may be blank ballots, but most will likely contain valid choices. In the City Council race, in the deciding round the vote totals for the 7th through 10th place candidates were: Kelley 1517, Carlone 1510, Mazen 1481, and vanBeuzekom 1466. That's only a 15 vote margin between 9th and 10th place, so it's possible that the unofficial results on Wednesday could change.

In the School Committee race, there are an additional 1,673 ballots to be inspected and counted on Wednesday. Most of these will likely be blank ballots without valid choices. However, even if there is a substantial number of valid ballots yet to be counted, the margins between candidates are such that it's essentially impossible for the results to change.

Oct 30 - The "Random Draw of Precincts" took place recently at the Cambridge Election Commission. This determines the order in which ballots from precincts throughout the city are counted in the election. Though this has a relatively minor effect on the tabulation of the ballots (because of the "Cincinnati Method" used to transfer surplus ballots), it can potentially make a difference in a very close election. Here's the ordering determined by lottery (read down the columns):

4-3

2-3

5-2

11-3 5-1

9-1

1-2

9-3 4-1

1-3

9-2

8-3 2-2

2-1

7-1

5-3 8-1

3-2A

3-3

11-2 10-2

10-1

1-1

4-2 7-3

3-2

11-1

3-1 6-3

6-2

7-2 8-2

10-3

6-1

Official candidate list for 2013 Municipal Election (PDF)

Polling Locations for the 2013 Cambridge Municipal Election

2013 Campaign Event Listings and Candidate Forums