Butt’s campaign files precursor to possible lawsuit in Richmond council race but chose to drop it

By Chris Campos, Editor, ThePress.net

Republished with permission.

MARTINEZ—Tamisha Torres-Walker, running for re-election for the Antioch City Council District 1 seat, came ahead by 3 votes on Nov. 8 beating challenger Joy Motts. After a lengthy and expensive recount Torres-Walker’s lead increased by one vote, according to the county elections office.

Allen Payton, publisher of the Antioch Herald but “acting as a resident and voter in the city,” requested the recount on Motts’ behalf. It’s been a costly exercise. Asked what the final price was Motts responded, “about $30,000.”

She was glad she went through the process. “With just a three vote difference I think it makes sense to go forward and the community agreed. I had support to pay for this.”

The results of the recount were announced Friday by County Clerk Deborah Cooper. The total for Motts dropped by one vote while Tamisha Torres-Walker’s vote total didn’t change.

Asked for her thoughts Torres-Walker said, “I’m just excited for this to finally be over and celebrate this win. I’ve just been waiting for this process.  I’m going to go home and celebrate the holidays with my family and look forward to serving Antioch on the city council for the next four years.”

Payton, publisher of the Antioch Herald, offered to help fundraising and help cover the costs of the recount. Motts stated earlier on her Facebook account, “We have found out today that unfortunately, the County is charging upwards of $38,500 for this recount, an exorbitant amount of money. Nevertheless, we are moving forward to try and raise the necessary funds. If you would like to support my efforts for a full recount, you can donate on my website at joymotts.org”

Payton said Friday, “about $20,000 total was raised by Mott’s campaign, most through her website, and spent as of today, including another $2,080 she paid today to the Contra Costa County Elections and $6,000 for elections attorney Chris Schweickert of Seto, Wood & Schweickert in Pleasant Hill for yesterday and today.”

On the first day of the recount 8 challenged vote-by-mail ballots and 4 challenged provisional ballots in the District 1 race were reviewed by Motts and Payton, who requested the recount on her behalf the previous week. It occurred at the Contra Costa County Clerk’s Office Elections Division office, with Deputy Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong, two elections office staff members as well as Torres-Walker and campaign consultant Melody Howe Weintraub monitoring the ballot count.

Of the ballots reviewed that day, two ballots were challenged by Motts and Payton for further review by Gong who allowed one to be counted and one was rejected.

A simultaneous recount is under way for the Andrew Butt campaign in Richmond’s District 2 race which ended in a tie and was broken last week by the drawing of an envelope out of a shopping bag.

As the challenge to those few ballots was transpiring, county elections staff were in the warehouse about a block away, retrieving 1,700 boxes of ballots in which the staff members have determined there are ballots for both the Antioch and Richmond elections. Those ballots were already put through the counting machines and included in the total vote count.

During a tour of the warehouse on Wednesday, Elections Services Manager Travis Ebbert was asked if ballots could be stuck together and scanned through the machine. He responded it could happen, but there are checks and balances.

“There are ways that ballots get scanned and double scanned. The scanners are high speed. They go really fast,” Ebbert explained. “By the time the first ballot is processed the seventh ballot is being imaged. There are checks for that. There’s human intervention and a second person there.”

“There’s potential for human error out of the 1.5 million ballot pages (submitted in the county during the November election),” he continued. “In the 1% manual count there were no double scans. This was the smoothest scan with the least human intervention.”

Helen Nolan, the assistant registrar of Contra Costa County, said later, “Thank you to everyone who came to observe and be a part of the recount process today. I appreciate your patience; we know it’s not always exciting but it’s an important part of our democracy and protecting the vote!”

During an interview with a reporter for NBC Bay Area Motts said, “This was not the methodology my campaign asked for. We wanted them to look at all the ballots in all the boxes. But to do that would be an exorbitant amount of money. When they decided to do this targeted search, we didn’t expect there would be much of a change.”

“The costs were split with the Butt campaign, so the total was $60,000 for both recounts,” she continued. “I think with elections this close they should automatically do a recount. As we saw today some ballots were adjudicated. I think it’s important that the county elections (office) does that and we as citizens support that.”

On Thursday Butt’s campaign filed the required paperwork on Thursday for a potential lawsuit challenging the election results but they have dropped it.

“What I filed on Thursday was an election contest under election code,” Daniel said, “It’s been muted by this recount result. It challenges specifically the two votes in the marina precinct. You also have to show it will change the outcome of the election. Now that Cesar has won by three votes, we’re dropping it. I’m keeping the door open to sue the city because the district map fails all criteria. But it won’t overturn the results of this election.”

“Both these candidates did the right thing in spite of opposition. They fought the good fight. But it’s worth looking into reducing the costs for recounts and requiring automatic recounts in close races,” he added.

Contra Costa County Elections Division staff provided the following information Friday evening:

Recount Results:
Antioch City Council District 1 Recount ANTIOCH Final Results by Precinct O&U
Tamisha Torres-Walker 1,467
Joy Motts 1,463
Diane Gibson-Gray 1,338

Richmond City Council District 2 Recount RICHMOND Final Results by Precinct
Andrew Butt 1,918
Cesar Zepeda 1,921

“These close races should remind voters how important every single vote is. I have been working for the Clerk-Recorder-Elections Department for 33 years and recounts have been extremely rare.” said Cooper. “Our elections team once again performed above and beyond, by recounting not one, but two city council races over the course of the past week and a half. These recounts confirmed the integrity of the elections through a transparent audit process.”

The final official report for this election is posted on the Contra Costa County Elections website and can be found at www.contracostavote.gov.

Allen D. Payton contributed to the Richmond recount portion of this report.

 

Initial cost estimate of $38,500 per may be reduced by work on both

Could take 6 to 7 days

By Dawn Kruger, Civic Outreach and Engagement Specialist

The County Clerk-Recorder-Elections Department has received two recount requests for races in the November 8, 2022, General Election. One request is for the Antioch District 1 City Council race in which Tamisha Torres-Walker won over Joy Motts by three votes and the second is for the Richmond District 2 City Council race, which ended in a tie between Andrew Butt and Cesar Zepeda. Today, Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 5:00 p.m. is the deadline for requesting a recount.

In California, any voter may request a recount. For single-county races, a request for recount must be made within five days of the county canvass/certification. No reason is required.

“Our office conducted expanded manual tally audits for these two close races, which were attended by the affected candidates and media representatives. These audits were done above and beyond the state requirements and at the County Elections Division’s cost. Our staff has done an excellent job and I am confident in their work. These requests are within the rules for recounts,” said Debi Cooper, Clerk-Recorder-Registrar. “As per state law, the requestor of the recount must pay the cost for the recount. The cost is determined based on the steps involved in the recount, including the sorting out of the physical paper ballots. Our office is preparing estimated costs for the requestors based on the type of recount that have been requested.”

On Monday night, Allen Payton, Antioch resident and publisher of the Antioch Herald and Contra Costa Herald, submitted a request for a hand recount of the ballots on behalf of candidate Joy Motts who lost to incumbent Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker. The letter was received by the elections staff Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, according to outgoing Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, the father of Andrew Butt who lost yesterday’s tiebreaker, the Butt campaign requested a hand recount of the ballots in that race.

The hand count by elections staff, last Thursday, was of the copies of images of the ballots that had been scanned through the machines. (See related articles here and here)

Once the costs are provided to the requestor, the recount will begin after payment for the first day’s processing is received. The recount must begin within 7 days of the official request. California law states that costs paid by the requestor are to be refunded if the recount changes the outcome of the election in favor of the requestor. The requestor is responsible for all costs of the recount. If the outcome does not change, the requestor may receive a refund if the amount paid was greater than the actual cost of the recount.

If the recount is conducted with the original paper ballots, the recount is expected to take 6-7 days. Conducting parallel recounts for two districts may save some shared costs but will take longer than the process for a single jurisdiction.

According to Tommy Gong, Deputy Clerk-Recorder, the initial estimate is $38,500 for each recount, as staff has to go to the warehouse, use a forklift and retrieve the boxes of ballots. That’s because, according to Helen Nolan, Assistant Registrar of Voters, the ballots are no longer stored by precinct but as they arrive in the Elections office. They will have to pull the 4,500 ballots from the estimated 1.3 million ballot pages submitted in the county during the November election. Each ballot included four pages, she added.

Wong estimated the sorting would take five days and recounting one day. However, he explained that they know how many ballots for each race and the results of the votes on those ballots that are in each box. Gong said the price for each recount could be reduced by sharing in the cost of retrieving and sorting the ballots. He also said he would also be checking with the Secretary of State’s office, today to determine if the recount could be done box by box in the warehouse which could further reduce the costs. Gong said he will know if that’s allowable Wednesday afternoon.

More information on recounts is available on the Secretary of State’s website here. You can also reach out to the Elections Division at 925-335-7800.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

What happens in a tie such as Richmond council race?

By Dawn Kruger, Civic Outreach and Engagement Specialist, Contra Costa County Elections Division

Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar Debi Cooper certified the results of the November 8, 2022, General Election today, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022.

“Our elections team has once again administered an accurate, transparent, safe and secure election for Contra Costa County.  This team of expert staff made a very complicated and technical process look easy – it isn’t,” Cooper said. “I am proud of this talented group, who make democracy happen for Contra Costa voters and provide incredible service.  This includes: permanent staff, temporary workers, poll workers, and volunteers. I want to thank each of them for their hard work and civic service.  It is my honor and privilege to certify my last election as the head of this department.”

The Elections Division conducted the canvass to complete the official count of all qualified ballots and to perform audits to verify the tabulation equipment performed as intended.

The purpose of the canvass accomplishes four primary tasks: ensuring that every eligible ballot is counted, that voters only voted once, that proper procedures were followed, and that the vote tabulation system counted ballots properly.

The final turnout for this Primary Election totaled 394,153 ballots cast, representing 56.15% of the 701,969 registered voters of Contra Costa County.

The final official report for this election is now posted on the Contra Costa County Elections website at www.contracostavote.gov.

The following was posted on the Elections Division website and applies to the Richmond City Council District 2 race that ended in a tie: (See related article)

Every vote counts!!! What happens in the case of a tie?

The Contra Costa Elections Division has now certified our Official Results for the November 8, 2022 General Election. We had two very close races; one by only 3 votes and one that ended in a tie. This is perfect example why we say that EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

In the event of a tie vote, Election Code says that tie may be decided by “lot” – a game of chance. (The Elections office has conducted a tie-breaker before by the roll of dice.)

Each city that requests to consolidate their election must define in their resolution, how a tie will be decided. Richmond’s City Resolution 79-22 states that a tie for the Richmond City Council District 2 will be decided by the City of Richmond, once we certify the results. Please contact the Richmond City Clerk’s office for more information.

Supervisor Gioia Explains Tie-Breaker Process

According to District 1 Supervisor John Gioia in a Friday afternoon email shared the following about the process for the tie-breaker in the Richmond City Council District 1 race:

A Resolution passed by the Richmond City Council on 6/21/22 specifically states: “That the County Election Department is authorized to canvass the returns of the Municipal Election.”

California Elections Code 15302 defines what it means to “canvass the returns”, which basically means to count the ballots, and certify and report the results. Section (h) calls for “Reporting final results to the governing board (in this case, the City of Richmond) and the Secretary of State, as required.”

County Elections has now finished its statutory responsibility under the State Elections Code to “canvass” the ballots, certify the results, and report them to the City.

What happens when the official certified results are tied? California Elections Code 15651 provides – “determine the tie by lot”. In other words, the tie must be broken by a process that is based on chance, not on skill. A recent tied election in the County was determined by the roll of dice. Drawing a card, flipping a coin, or pulling a name out of a hat have been used in the past. No running races allowed!

The Mayor and City Council voted to establish their own process of chance. Under the Richmond City Council’s 6/21/22 resolution: “..if two or more candidates for mayor or in a district receive an equal and the highest number of votes, the City Clerk shall summon the candidates receiving the tie vote to appear before her, at the time designated by the City Clerk, in the Council Chamber. The City Clerk shall place the name of each candidate in a sealed unmarked envelope and the tie vote shall be broken by lot.”

It is now up to the Richmond City Clerk to conduct the process to break the tie, as set forth in their resolution. County Elections has no authority to conduct this tie-breaker. I’ve been told that Richmond’s City Attorney is advising the City Clerk on this issue.

This should be a public process. The City Clerk has previously stated that the process would be telecast on live streaming through the City’s website.

We will await to hear any announcements by the City Clerk on when, how and where the tie-breaking process will occur. I have heard that the City Clerk is out of the office today so it appears that any tie-breaker will not occur until next week.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.