With only 24 votes separating Los Alamitos City Council winner Gerri Graham-Mejia and fourth place finisher Dean Zarkos, he has requested a recount. OC180NEWS asked Orange County Registrar of Voters what it all means.
According to a statement from Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters, the Los Al recount is one of only two in OC from the November 2 general election. The votes cast in the Los Alamitos City Council race, where the top three vote getters win the open seats on the council, totaled 4,007.
The recount was requested by Dean Zarkos. “They don’t have to specify why,” Registrar Kelley told OC180NEWS. “What they do have to specify is on behalf of which candidate.”
Kelley indicated all Los Al precincts would be subject to the recount because the request did not specify specific precincts.
“I don’t have an exact date [for the recount to start], but it looks like it is going to be December 13,” Kelley told us.
He indicated the recount, which is a manual process, should probably take about four days.
“You’re looking at one ballot at a time and you are making tick marks against those ballots, so, it’s a manual count.”
Kelley told us he has not finished the cost estimate yet. “If we only use two boards, that would be 8 people total doing the recount that would be $1,200 per day.” If the count takes four days, it would cost Dean Zarkos around $4,800.00.
But, the candidate requesting the recount is not required to go through with a complete recount. “They can go through with half the recount, they could do just a couple of precincts or the whole thing,” Kelley told OC180NEWS. “They drive it.”
We asked Kelley if there were any significant number of damaged or problem ballots in this race and he said no. We also asked him if there was any reason why he thought the results might change. “That’s a great question, and I’m not going to answer it,” he said. “Historically – generally speaking – recounts change very little.”
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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