By MICHAEL MELLO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
(re-posted here without permission)
FULLERTON – The City Council race isn't over. At least, not in Doug Chaffee's mind.
Chaffee, a lawyer and the vice chairman on Fullerton's Planning Commission, has filed for a recount of the Nov. 2 election.
According to the registrar's tally, incumbent Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley won the two full-term seats that were up for grabs.
McKinley, who came in second, tallied 10,346 votes, or 18.1 percent, and Chaffee got 10,256 votes — 17.9 percent.
McKinley, a former Fullerton police chief, started out ahead on election night, but the lead for that second seat seesawed between them as elections officials counted remaining ballots.
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said Chaffee filed for the recount last week. He had until Saturday to do so.
Chaffee declined to give specifics about why he asked for the recount, but said he wanted more closely to examine data from the registrar's office.
"I want to test a few things," he said. "Depending on how that testing comes out, and if it looks like things won't change, I may not complete the recount."
"It's so close, that you want to be sure," Chaffee added.
In the meantime, Fullerton City Clerk Beverly White said the plan is to swear in Bankhead and McKinley at Tuesday’s City Council meeting because Kelley has signed off on the election results.
“We’re going to go along as if there’s no recount at this point,” White said.
And if a recount should change the results?
“My understanding is, if that should happen, then we would have to unseat McKinley, then give Doug the oath and seat him,” White said.
In 10 years as the city clerk, she’s never seen that happen, she added.
Based on past experience, the recount could cost Chaffee $1,200 to $3,000 a day, Kelley said.
Kelley's office and Chaffee are working out the details of the recount.
Chaffee said he's willing to have the recount start on or around Dec. 13 — even if that means McKinley is already seated. The registrar said that it could be more than a week before the recount starts.
Orange County has one other recount in a city race, in Los Alamitos.
There, Councilman Dean Zarkos' has requested a recount of the Nov. 2 election results. Zarkos came in fourth-place in the race for three open seats, with 24 votes separating him from third-place winner, Councilwoman Gerri Graham-Mejia.
Register correspondent Roxana Kopetman contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3796 or mmello@ocregister.com
No comments:
Post a Comment