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A recount by the Marin County Elections Department did not alter the outcome of the Sausalito City Council election, the voting registrar said.

The recount was requested by incumbent Joan Cox, who narrowly lost the last open seat on the City Council to newcomer Ian Sobieski.

Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts said the recount was completed Thursday morning. The new certified results show Cox lost by two votes instead of one.

“At this point the recount results is the official vote now,” Roberts said. “The certified results are no longer relevant to this process because we manually recounted the ballots and the results that we have are the certified result of this race.”

The recount found that Janelle Kellman earned 3,003 votes, down by two votes compared to the first set of certified results. Melissa Blaustein tallied 2,660 votes, which is in line with the Nov. 3 results. Sobieski notched 1,876 votes, which is one less than what was originally counted.

While Sobieski lost one vote during the process, the recount also found that Cox lost two votes from her original mark. She ended the race with 1,874 votes.

The new members were sworn into the City Council on Tuesday per state election rules, said Heidi Scoble, city clerk.

Roberts said Cox has paid more than $10,000 in deposits since the start of the recount on Dec. 10. The deposits covered the cost of two four-person counting boards, possible legal counsel and other miscellaneous expenses. About 5,500 ballots were manually recounted over the course of five days.

“I think it went smoothly,” she said. “The observers, at the end of the process, seemed to be satisfied with how it went.”

Cox said she is glad she went through with the recount to assure to the residents who voted for her that the count was accurate.

However, she said the city should consider a different course of action for elections with candidates running for multiple seats.

“I think we should consider ranked- choice voting or some kind of runoff procedure, to ensure that if candidates come out more closely than people anticipated, their choice is still known,” she said. “I also think it should not be incumbent upon a candidate to spend $20,000 for a recount, because if you don’t have those resources you’re out of the game. It’s very unfair.”

Now that Cox is no longer sitting on the council, some Marinship advocates are concerned that it will be more difficult to keep low-income, senior or affordable housing out of the industrially zoned waterfront areas.

Former mayor Sandra Bushmaker said the city should first tackle its budgetary issues and ensure it can withstand the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. But she is also concerned about the fate of the working waterfront.

Bushmaker said she hoped Cox would win because she was the only council member to speak out against the idea of putting land-based housing in the Marinship area. She said putting low-income residents or senior residents in that area is folly.

Cox said she will continue her work on the housing issue, which she has been immersed in since 2008. She said the state is mandating the city build 740 new units by 2029.