Winners were declared (again) in the Antioch and Richmond city council races Friday afternoon.
Tamisha Torres-Walker and Cesar Zepeda are the official victors in their respective elections, according to Deborah Cooper, Contra Costa County’s Clerk-Recorder-Registrar.
In a twist, Zepeda actually won the Richmond contest outright with 1,921 votes. The recount process removed three ballots supporting his opponent, Andrew Butt, after it was uncovered that they were submitted by residents who were incorrectly allowed to vote in District 2.
This is the second time Zepeda was declared the winner, after his name was drawn out of a bag Dec. 6 in an unusual tiebreaker.
“I’m excited to be able to officially, officially get started working for District 2,” Zepeda said in a phone interview. “I am feeling excited this process is over, and I’m also feeling grateful and thankful to the Butt campaign that they wanted every vote to be counted. That’s exactly what happened with the process today; every ballot that was supposed to be counted was counted, and that’s what gave us the results.”
In Antioch, incumbent Torres-Walker successfully held onto her District 1 seat, after the original machine tally of 1,467 votes was reaffirmed by the manual recount, Cooper said Friday. The official tallies retracted one ballot supporting the runner-up, Joy Motts, who finished the election with 1,463 votes.
Torres-Walker said she was relieved she could finally start mentally preparing to govern for the next four years.
“I know I was elected, I know I won by three votes, I know I was sworn in, but it just felt incomplete because of the recount,” Torres-Walker said in a call Friday night. “Today, I could breathe knowing it’s over.”
But beyond the favorable results, she hopes that this experience shows the community that their voices can and will be heard.
“I just want people to know that each and every vote counts,” Torres-Walker said. “Don’t don’t give up on democracy.”
Motts was not immediately available for comment.
The initial news comes nine days after Contra Costa County election officials began sorting and recounting the challenged ballots, more than two weeks after the recounts were first requested and 45 days after polls closed for the Nov. 8 election.
Cooper lauded elections officials for their hard work completing the recount process, which she said hadn’t been done in Contra Costa County for more than 20 years.
Both of the losing candidates who called for the recounts — Motts in Antioch and Butt in Richmond — have expressed frustration with the county’s process, claiming it was “confusing” and with “no rhyme or reason.”
However, Butt said he would not be contesting Friday’s results, given the three-point differential that materialized during the recount. Additionally, he said legal documents that were filed earlier this week — challenging whether the district map the city of Richmond used for the election was the same one the council had publicly approved — will likely be withdrawn.
“It’s been crazy,” Butt said in a call. “I am feeling a sense of relief and a little disappointment, but such is life. I’m looking at the cup half-full.
“A lot of people were vocally critical of the fact that we were doing this … but what it showed me is that there were a number of inaccuracies,” he added. “The end result didn’t go my way, but it just shows that it’s kind of worth taking a second look.”
Helen Nolan, assistant registrar for Contra Costa County, said 4,621 ballots were received for Antioch’s tightly contested race, with 4,270 including votes for a council candidate. That race, which was first audited Dec. 1, ended with Torres-Walker pulling ahead of Motts by three votes.
In Richmond, 4,194 ballots were received and 3,842 had votes marked for the council seat in the District 2 race, which had ended in a tie between Butt and Zepeda following an audit and before the recount.
There is no date as to when the recount needs to be completed, according to the elections code.
If the losing candidates do decide that they want to go back and look through all the boxes — as opposed to only the boxes known to hold ballots pertaining to the Antioch and Richmond races — they will have to pay per employee used for that purpose.
That request would likely tack on another week to the recount process and the county would charge candidates more than the initial $22,000-per-candidate cost, Nolan said.
Before Friday’s announcements, Nolan was looking forward to finally offering residents and candidates final answers.
“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 Wednesday.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Source: www.mercurynews.com