Vincent Orange is one step closer to winning the At-Large D.C. Council seat after outstanding absentee and provisional ballots were tallied on Friday.
After the count, Orange had a total of 23,719 votes compared to Sekou Biddle's total of 21,973. According to the D.C. Board of Elections, the results will not be officially certified until a public board meeting on Wednesday.
Orange had a 543-vote lead over Biddle before the outstanding ballot count. That lead was bumped to 1,746 votes. If the margin of victory was less than 1 percent, an automatic recount would have been in order. That won't be the case, however.
With a lead of almost 3 percent a recount won't take place without Biddle's request.
Orange was the only incumbent council member who faced a significant challenge.
"We obviously thought it was going to be a very close race," Biddle told News4's Derrick Ward. "It's obviously turned out to be much closer than I or anybody else anticipated."
