Cleveland City Council's Ward 12 election results are headed to an automatic recount next week, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections announced at their Tuesday certification meeting.
If progressive lawyer Tanmay Shah's razor-thin lead over incumbent Danny Kelly holds, he will be the only newcomer to oust an incumbent in this year's municipal election in Cleveland.
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections officials said results for that election will be recounted on Dec. 1. It should only take one day to do so.
Four other races in the county triggered automatic recounts and will be conducted in the days following the Cleveland council race recount. Those include Bedford City School District's Board of Education, North Randall Village Council, North Royalton Council's Ward 6 and Orange City School District's Board of Education.
Recounts are triggered when the margin of victory is equal to or below 0.5%. Once all recounts are complete, the Board of Elections will meet again to certify results.
On election night, Shah had a seven-vote lead over Kelly. After counting valid mail-in and provisional ballots, that lead widened to a nine-vote lead. Voter turnout in the ward was about 20%.
Shah, a 29-year-old resident of Cleveland's Jefferson neighborhood, defines himself as a democratic socialist with a background in housing law and labor organizing. Backed by endorsements and fundraising from progressive groups like the Better Cleveland for All political action committee and the Working Families Party, he ran his campaign to stand up to what he calls the "establishment" of Cleveland politics.
"I’m grateful and really excited for what we have in store," Shah told Ideastream on Tuesday. "What we knew from the start has been validated: when we talk to people about their material conditions and their day-to-day life about how city government should be better, they will listen and they want to see change."
Shah's campaign centered on affordable housing, affordable groceries and reliable city services.
Under new maps, Ward 12, which extends from the West Side's Edgewater neighborhood to West Boulevard, most closely resembles Danny Kelly's current Ward 11. Kelly, a lifelong laborer who championed workers' rights in office, was appointed by his predecessor Brian Mooney in 2023 and won the special election that fall to confirm his spot in office. This was Kelly's first competitive race, armed with a mayoral endorsement and financial backing from the Council Leadership Fund, a political action committee controlled by City Council's president. Kelly held an 18% lead over Shah in the September primary.
Whichever of the two wins the seat will be sworn in in January, alongside the rest of the upcoming council cohort, which includes two other new members.
