A 22-year-old Sam Houston State University student who ran for Huntsville City Council and came within 153 votes of unseating an incumbent councilman has filed and agreed to fund a manual recount of votes.
Unofficially, the incumbent, 39-year-old Keith Olson received 3,453 votes while his challenger, Kendall Scudder earned 3,300, thus making Olson the unofficial winner with 51.13 percent of the vote.
For the Position 4 at-large seat in question, the Walker County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office has reported more than 6700 ballots were cast in the election, with only provisional ballots not yet counted.
An exact date for the recount will be set when all provisional ballots have been tallied.
During the campaign, Olson, a Huntsville businessman questioned Sudder’s level of experience and publicly remarked about his age. Olson also declined to face his opponent in a debate hosted by an SHSU student organization.
