Lesbian activist and diversity consultant Lisbeth Melendez Rivera was behind her closet rival by just 17 votes on Tuesday night in a three-candidate special election to fill a vacant seat on the Hyattsville, Md., City Council.
In what it said were the unofficial results of the special election, the Hyattsville Board of Supervisors of Elections posted on its website that candidate Emily Strab had 280 votes, Melendez Rivera had 263 votes, and candidate Kelly Burello had 152 votes.
Three votes were cast for write-in candidates, the election night posting said. “Results are unofficial until certified by the Board of Supervisors of Election,” the posting said.
The certification was scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6. The online posting of the results did not say whether there were any outstanding votes from absentee or mail-in ballots.