Lawmakers question counts in 16th District Senate race

Dec. 9—As election officials across the Central Valley on Friday submitted their final voting results and closed the gaps on the state's remaining vote canvass, state GOP leaders spoke on the entire election process and questioned its results.

Two state senators, Republican Leader Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, and Senate Minority Leader-elect Brian Jones, R-Santee, issued a joint statement Friday that requested the California State Senate pause the swearing-in ceremony for the 16th Senate District, so that they can address concerns over "hundreds of ballots that have not been counted."

"Every vote should be counted, period," the joint statement read. "The Central Valley's Senate District 16 race between Melissa Hurtado and David Shepard is extremely close with a margin reportedly at 20 votes out of more than 136,000 votes cast."

The Kern County and Fresno County elections offices confirmed Thursday that they had finished tabulating results.

According to Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters James Kus, their results are final. This last update places Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, as the projected winner of the 16th District by 20 votes. As of 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Hurtado had 68,457 votes; Shepard, R-Porterville, currently has 68,437 votes.

No victor will be named until the state certifies the results. Neither candidate was present in Sacramento on Monday, when the newly elected were sworn-in and the Legislature convened.

The once low-profile certification process has in recent times turned into a point of contest between election officials and the elected, as many races come down to a handful of ballots.

"We call upon our 37 colleagues of both parties in the Senate to not jam through a swearing-in for Senate District 16 that the courts may later have to reverse," the statement from the two Republican lawmakers said. "It would be unfair and yet another slight to the residents of the Central Valley for the Senate to rush the seating of either Hurtado or Shepard until there is uniform confidence that every vote has been counted in this razor-thin race."

Shepard's campaign did not respond to immediate requests for comment, but did provide a statement to KGET-TV 17 that he was "going to explore some options."

"Like I said, some of the issues out of Kern County have me wondering if we should challenge and maybe recount," Shepard said. "And so with it being as close as it is, we're just kind of keeping the options open and we will make that decision later."

According to Kern County Chief Operations Officer James Zervis, the Kern County Board of Supervisors met in a 9 a.m. Friday special session and certified the county's votes. According to Kern Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Alsop, the county submitted its results to the California Secretary of State on Thursday.

While Hurtado did not respond to requests for comment Friday, she did note Thursday on Twitter, "In case anyone is eager to know, I found my first gray hair today."

The statement from Wilk and Jones also reported a rumor of 14 "cured" ballots submitted in Fresno County on Thursday that had not yet been counted.

Kus said his office received a last batch of votes around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, but said it was well past their noon deadline to submit. Despite earlier rumors that they would seek a recount, Kus said his office has no intention of doing one.

"Any citizen is allowed to request a recount once a (vote) count is certified," Kus said. "We've received some questions from the public but so far nothing official. We will not do a recount unless a member of the public requests it."

Due to state guidelines, counties had to submit their results for certification by Thursday. Kus said that they extended the deadline for cured ballots up until noon Thursday, but that was their deadline.

"Same thing could happen today," Kus explained Friday. "We could receive cured ballots in the mail today, but unfortunately, once we reach that deadline we can't count votes any longer. By law, we have to stop and process votes for certification."

Additionally, the release from the two Republican lawmakers said there were "reports" of uncounted votes in Kings County and between 600 and 800 ballots in Tulare County that were not processed.

"The press release is inaccurate as it relates to the Kings County Elections Department," Lupe Villa, Registrar of Voters in Kings County, said Friday. All its votes have been counted, he said.

Tulare County's Elections office did not respond to immediate requests for comment. It closed at noon Friday.

The senators in their statement also criticized the Kern County Registrar of Voters Office for an "alarming" lack of transparency, and confusion.

"Incorrect postings of remaining ballots, vote machine break-downs, floating deadlines for curing ballots, and mismanagement of staff have all plagued the Kern County Registrar of Voters Office since election night," the statement read. "Right now, there is no faith that the Kern County vote count is anywhere done nor accurate."

Kern County was the last of four counties in the 16th District race to submit its unprocessed ballots. Its election officials acknowledged at least one mishap — when its sole counting machine was broken down for hours — but insisted no voter was disenfranchised.

"It appears that no matter what Kern County does (add more personnel, more machinery etc.), they will always have to wait until 5 p.m. two days prior to the final certification date to truly 'certify' the election," said resident Carol Bender, in a Dec. 2 email to various county officials. "This is why the election office could not certify early on Dec. 6 (BOS meeting)."

California law says voters have until 5 p.m. two days prior to certification of the election to provide a signature verification statement in person.

"Personally, I think this is a bad policy and puts a lot of pressure on local election officials ... but again, it is a state regulation," Bender wrote.

At their board meeting on Tuesday, the Kern Board of Supervisors approved a referral to review the election counting process via a presentation at their next meeting on Dec. 13.

Kern County Registrar of Voters and County Clerk Mary Bedard, who did a similar presentation after the June primary, said she told the board at that June meeting she would come back to do another update.

"I will be doing a report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Dec. 13, where I will be addressing issues that have been raised," Bedard said.