By ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff

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Mary Vanden Brook, who lost the 16th Judicial Circuit race, began reviewing absentee and provisional ballots Tuesday, after an official recount ended with Key West attorney Tegan Slaton beating her by four votes.

Vanden Brook, who will continue her review on Thursday, declined to comment on whether she had found any errors or anything that she is researching further.

"Once again, I thought the elections office was great and handled it very well," Vanden Brook said. "I'm just following up on things that needed to be checked to ensure the process for my supporters and myself."

Vanden Brook took advantage of the public viewing law that allows candidates to see the ballots for themselves. Such viewings usually occur only in tightly contested races, said Harry Sawyer, county elections supervisor.

Vanden Brook on Tuesday viewed some of the provisional ballots -- cast by voters who did not have ID on Election Day -- and the ballots that arrived in Monroe County from overseas via fax, as is a common voting practice for servicemen and women. On Thursday, she plans to return to review the rest of the absentee ballots, she said.

Should Vanden Brook concede, her next career move remains undecided.

"I have not really made that decision and there are a lot of options," Vanden Brook said.

She resigned her job as the Monroe County trial court administrator to run for office. Before that, she was director of the Guardian ad Litem program for Monroe County from 1990 to 1992, and a family court manager from 1995 to 2005.

The judgeship is a six-year post that pays $145,080. Slaton will replace retiring Judge Sandra Taylor.

Slaton captured 16,463 votes to Vanden Brook's 16,459, the difference being in the provisional ballots that election officials studied during a 13-hour manual recount.

Slaton appeared to lead the race election night by just nine votes, when the recount was called.

The machine recount showed Slaton led by 15 votes, before election workers finally narrowed the figure to four.

alinhardt@keysnews.com