The old age that “every vote counts” couldn’t ring more true than in this year’s Contra Costa County district council races, where incumbent Tamisha Torres-Walker narrowly held onto her seat in Antioch and Andrew Butt and Cesar Zepeda tied in the Richmond race more than three weeks after Election Day.
On Thursday, after election officials conducted an audit of the close Antioch and Richmond races, Torres-Walker had held off former Councilwoman Joy Motts by three votes in the Antioch City Council District 1 race while Zepeda had closed the five-vote gap to to tie with Butt in Richmond’s District 2 council contest.
The entire election is expected to be certified on Friday, according to officials. Richmond officials then will then hold a tie-breaker — coin toss, throw of the dice, or pull of paper lots — to decide the winner at a yet-undetermined date and location. That is unless someone calls for a recount within five days.
With the votes so close, election officials conducted internal checks on each race on Thursday to be sure the voting systems operated accurately. The audits, which included counting paper printouts from computers, are similar to recounts, though the processes are different and several methods are available when someone pays for a recount.
“I’m very excited,” Zepeda said following the audit. “…But it’s not about who wins the tie or not. It’s understanding that the district is definitely split 50/50 and we need to be able to bring people together.”
Zepeda had not decided if he’d call for a recount but added that the election was an “education for voters.” “You know, they really got to see democracy in the works.”
“Every election we sometimes hear people say oh my vote doesn’t matter, so they don’t show up to vote,” Zepeda said. “But they have to understand when races are this close… you get to see the importance of each single vote.”
Butt was still trying to figure out his next step minutes after the three-hour audit ended. He said he did not plan on asking for a recount and expected the election would likely be decided on a mutually agreed-upon coin toss, dice throw or draw of lots.
“It’s crazy. I kind of had a feeling this would happen,” he said on Thursday afternoon. “I can’t believe that it’s come down to this.”
Torres-Walker meanwhile said she was surprised to have gone from last place in the three-way race to eventually a tie and now a win.
“I’m excited and nervous too because, you know, this is a big deal,” she said. “It’s a great responsibility and it’s for four years and I’m looking forward to learning more and to slowing down a little.”
Torres-Walker added that she was grateful for the win and thankful for her supported who worked really hard for the votes.
After last week’s update, the Antioch race was tied and only five votes separated the Richmond candidates with Butt in the lead. The only remaining votes this week included 19 “challenge” ballots in Antioch’s District 1 contest and 12 challenge votes in Richmond’s District 2, according to Helen Nolan, Contra Costa County assistant registrar.
The challenge votes are ones in which there is no signature or it doesn’t match the one on file, so each voter was sent a letter to give them an opportunity by Wednesday’s deadline to prove the votes were valid. Even with valid signatures, though, that doesn’t mean a person voted in the council race.
Some candidates like Zepeda and Torres-Walker obtained the list of challenge votes and knocked on doors or made phone calls to make sure the voters would add signatures or would contact election officials to have them have their signatures verified.
Zepeda said the majority of ballots that needed to be “cured” or verified were in precincts he was stronger in.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of voting and doing your civic duty,” he said.
After Thursday’s audit, the Richmond candidates tied 1,921 votes each.
In Antioch, Walker had added five votes for a total of 1,467 while Motts added two for a total of 1,464.
The contest was reminiscent of the three-way race in 2020 when Motts was ahead by 12 votes a week after the election, but her lead later evaporated and Torres-Walker took the win by 206 votes in the final tally.
Motts could not be reached for comment, but Torres-Walker said they talked briefly following the audit and shook hands.
“My goal is to have connections with everybody in the neighborhood across the district and she (Motts) seemed to know her neighborhood,” Torres-Walker said. “I’m hoping we could work together so that we can make sure that the needs of downtown get met and she can give me advice on how to do that.”
Before the election, Butt touted his experience as an architect, planning commissioner, city Design Review Board member and president of the Point Richmond Business Association, and campaigned on a promise to preserve Richmond’s physical and cultural past. If elected, fulfilling his promise to disrupt the Richmond Progressinve Alliance’s vision for the city could take time as the group holds a majority on the council for at least another two years.
Zepeda said he still adamantly supports district elections, pointing out a large set of votes came from supporters in the Hilltop area and historically Black and Brown neighborhoods.
The split vote in the election, he said, means that the call to action is to “bring us together” and the district needs healing. Some small precincts had zero votes, he said.
“We need to come together, all right,” Zepeda said. “We’ve got to build community and district elections is gonna get us there.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com