Help with Automation Preventing Duplicate To-Do list items

Configuration
1

Hello!
I am working on an automation for preventing duplicate items in my to-do list. For example, if I run my dryer twice I don’t need two instances of “Fold Laundry” on my to-do list.
I have the following:

alias: "To Do: Prevent Duplicates"
description: ""
triggers:
  - event_type: call_service
    event_data:
      domain: todo
      service: add_item
    variables:
      list_name: "{{ trigger.event.data.service_data.entity_id }}"
      list_friendly_name: >
        {{ state_attr((trigger.event.data.service_data.entity_id)[0],
        'friendly_name') }}
      task: "{{ trigger.event.data.service_data.item }}"
    trigger: event
conditions: []
actions:
  - target:
      entity_id: "{{list_name}}"
    data:
      status: needs_action
    response_variable: todo
    action: todo.get_items
    enabled: true
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{list_name == ['todo.before_bed']}}"
        sequence:
          - if:
              - condition: template
                enabled: true
                value_template: >-
                  {{
                  todo['todo.before_bed']['items']|selectattr('summary','search',task)|list|count
                  > 0 }}
            then:
              - action: todo.remove_item
                metadata: {}
                data:
                  item: "{{task}}"
                target:
                  entity_id: todo.before_bed
            enabled: true
      - conditions:
          - condition: template
            value_template: "{{list_name == ['todo.home_to_do_list']}}"
        sequence:
          - if:
              - condition: template
                enabled: true
                value_template: >-
                  {{
                  todo['todo.home_to_do_list']['items']|selectattr('summary','search',task)|list|count
                  > 0 }}
            then:
              - action: todo.remove_item
                metadata: {}
                data:
                  item: "{{task}}"
                target:
                  entity_id: todo.home_to_do_list
            enabled: true
mode: queued
max: 90

What is interesting (aka I don’t understand why) is that the count used in the template condition of:

              - condition: template
                enabled: true
                value_template: >-
                  {{
                  todo['todo.home_to_do_list']['items']|selectattr('summary','search',task)|list|count
                  > 0 }}

Is 1 less than what I would expect. If I use “>1” the automation only removes an item when the third instance populates the to do list, allowing for two instances of the item. If i use “>0” then it removes the second instance.
For some reason, this automation works great when I am testing out this automation by adding “fold laundry” manually, one at a time. However, every morning at 5am my to-do lists populate (starting empty) with what I need to get done that day. This is less than 40 items total across all my to do lists. For some reason this automation interferes with this and randomly allows a couple though and deletes the rest even though there are no duplicates being populated. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

I found similar (but not quite) posts here and here but these use completely different methods I would like to see if I can get this automation working since I think am close.

Thanks in advance!