The L.A. County Registrar of Voters, on Wednesday, began a recount of the roughly 6,214 ballots cast for Proposition P (the Right to Vote on Development Initiative), which passed by eight votes.
The demand for the recount was made by Malibu Realtor and political activist Paul Grisanti, who posted the $4,513 fee for the recount.
Grisanti told The Malibu Times he filed for the recount to try and head off a series of lawsuits he sees coming if P passes. The first suit he anticipates is by the backers of P, who are rumored to be talking about a legal challenge to the so-called “poison pill” portion of Proposition N, the development deal measure that would purportedly knock out P because N received more votes. He anticipates another round of lawsuits will come later when others challenge the constitutionality of Proposition P, all of which he believes would involve the city in prolonged litigation.
After the initial election count on Nov. 7, then the tallying of late-arriving absentee ballots and finally the count of the provisional ballots, Proposition P narrowly passed by 8 votes out of 6,214 votes cast. It received 3,111 Yes votes and 3,103 No votes. Because the final recount will not be completed until The Malibu Times is already on the street, the final results can be obtained by going to the L.A. County Registrar of Voters Web site at www.lavote.net, and selecting the ‘election returns’ button, and then going to ‘local races’ and finally, ‘city races.’
According to Jim Sutton, an attorney and election law specialist with the firm of Neilsen, Merksamer in San Francisco, who is representing those in opposition to Proposition P, the recount in Los Angeles is similar to that in Florida in some respects, but very different in others.
There will be four teams of two people each counting the 6,214 ballots in the Malibu recount on two folding tables in a process that’s followed uniformly throughout L.A. County. The recount will be by hand, and every ballot will be looked at individually. The entire recount process is conducted by employees of the County Registrar of Voters Office, including any appeals. It’s anticipated the recount will be completed in one day.
In Florida, canvassing members, who review and decide on disputed ballot appeals, are political appointments. Los Angeles has a review process, but reviewers are senior members of the registrar’s staff, who Sutton described as “politically disinterested” about the outcome. Additionally, we have more uniformity than Florida because the California Secretary of State has issued regulations, which are all already set in state law, regarding the counting of chads. Rather than leaving it to each county to set its own standards, and thusly having variations among counties, as is the case in Florida, California’s rule is: three corners of the chad have to be punched before it is counted as a vote. Also, to avoid unnecessary handling of the ballots, they’re placed on glass in an overhead projector type of device so they can be examined with a minimum of degradation to the ballot, in case they later have to be examined by a court. Both sides can have observers present and they can appeal any decision of the counters. The appealed ballots are put aside in a separate pile for review by the final review committee and ultimately kept separate if there is an election contest.
After the recount, either side can go to the Superior Court to file an election contest if they want to challenge the results. In California, the grounds are alleged fraud, misconduct or flagrant mistake.
Even if, after the recount, Proposition P still has passed, it would most likely have 100 or so fewer votes than Proposition N. Sutton is of the opinion that, in any event, Proposition N, as the higher vote-getter, would knock out Proposition P. Sutton said information about the ballot propositions are laid out in the voter pamphlet. He said the courts often look to the voter pamphlet, and the information provided to the voter, as a sign of legislative intent. In this case, the legislative intent was that of the Malibu City Council, who put the proposition onto the ballot.