SARASOTA COUNTY — A proposed Sarasota County Charter Amendment that barely failed Nov. 6 still fell after machine and manual recounts of 207,936 ballots this week.

Recount results released Thursday by the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Office showed the amendment — which would have eliminated special elections the charter currently mandates under certain circumstances — failed to pass by just 342 votes. A total of 166,882 votes were cast in the contest.