Antioch, Richmond recount process drags on but tally of votes could begin Thursday

It’s Groundhog Day – again – for Contra Costa County election officials who continue to separate ballots in the Antioch and Richmond city council races for the seventh day in preparation for a recount that both campaigns for Joy Motts and Andrew Butt have requested.

Helen Nolan, assistant registrar for Contra Costa County, said that the recount would begin as soon as all ballots were separated. That could happen as early as Thursday morning depending on whether candidates challenge any of the ballots or the methodology used.

“It’ll depend on how quickly we get through the boxes,” Nolan said. “With the recount, it’ll probably take the majority of the day Thursday and part of the day on Friday to come to a conclusion.”

Nolan said 4,621 ballots were received for Antioch’s tightly contested District 1 race, with 4,270 including votes for a council candidate. That race ended with Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker ahead of Motts by three votes following a Dec. 1 elections audit.

In Richmond, 4,194 ballots were received and 3,842 had votes marked for the council seat in the District 2 race, which ended in a tie between Butt and Cesar Zepeda following the audit. Butt later lost to Zepeda following a draw of names in Richmond.

Butt and Motts on Wednesday expressed frustration over the long process, which they say has been confusing and frustrating.

“The whole thing’s been kind of like new information every day and so I’m not necessarily counting on that (a Thursday recount) happening,” Butt said.

Butt added it seemed “there’s no rhyme or reason to the exact way” or an “exact formula” that election officials are using for the recount process. “…Their default is they are doing what they think is the best way to do it.”

Butt’s brother, Daniel Butt, planned on Thursday to file legal documents to contest the election, something that has to be done within 20 days of certifying the election. The Butts were also questioning the city of Richmond over the district map used for the election, saying it was not the one the council had agreed upon.

Motts said she was upset with how hard it has been to get timely answers to questions about the process.

“Frankly, I don’t think the county had a process for doing a recount, especially to do two at the same time,” she said.

Motts said both candidates, who had agreed to work together, wanted all the boxes examined, but after that was done for two days, elections officials returned to a different method using a manifest to only pull from boxes that they knew contained ballots for those Richmond and Antioch districts in question. Though they were notified via email late Friday, she said they didn’t have time to collaborate with the other campaign to decide how to proceed and the county returned to the quicker method examining targeted boxes.

“Both of us were upset that they were changing (mehtods); we had an agreement and now they’re moving the goalposts on us,” she said.

Nolan, however, said officials are not required to pull ballots according to the candidates’ requested method.

“They don’t get to determine how we pull the ballots, but we offer that as an accommodation because they requested it,” she said. “But, after two solid days of spending four times as long going through boxes and coming up with zero additional ballots, we used our discretion to go to the targeted method.”

If the candidates decide after the current recount is complete, they want to go back and look through all the boxes, they will have to pay per employee used for that purpose and that will increase the estimated $22,000-per-candidate cost, Nolan said. It will also add about another week to the recount process, she added.

Motts said she was unsure what she would do if she lost after the recount was completed and still wanted a breakdown of costs if they moved forward later with the longer recount method.

“Honestly, it’s just been super frustrating,” she said.

There is no date to when the recount needs to be completed, according to elections code.

Nolan added that elections officials were working hard to complete the recount process.

“We are eager to get this wrapped up and tied with a red bow and just, you know, give them some resolution, some peace,” Nolan said.

Check back for updates.