One Election Day result remains in limbo with about 1,900
ballots left to count or filter out due to ineligibility, as former
Hollister City Councilman Robert Scattini holds a slim 10-vote lead
over newcomer Sergio Montanez in the District 2 race.
One Election Day result remains in limbo with about 1,900 ballots left to count or filter out due to ineligibility, as former Hollister City Councilman Robert Scattini holds a slim 10-vote lead over newcomer Sergio Montanez in the District 2 race.
The winner will succeed Eugenia Sanchez, who replaced Scattini in 2006, as the district’s representative on the city council. Scattini, the county marshal, held the position for four years starting in 2002.
But first, the county needs to finish counting 1,400 additional mail-in ballots and another 400 to 500 provisional ballots, head county election official Joe Paul Gonzalez said.
The elections office expected to county remaining mail-in ballots by Monday evening, after press time, Gonzalez said. The rest of the votes will be finished by Friday.
“It takes a little time,” Gonzalez said.
But it’s not the counting that takes time – it’s determining if all the provisional votes are eligible.
The election’s office must go through each provisional ballot to determine if that voter was eligible to vote and if so, whether they did it in the right place, Gonzalez said. Once the office determines the eligibility and correct location of the voters, the office must re-enter ballot choices to match the eligible measures and races.
“We have to determine which ballot type the voter should have voted in and if they voted in the right precinct,” Gonzalez said.
The confusion on where to vote comes when people move, Gonzalez said. People forget to register at their new locations.
“A lot of people move and they don’t re-register,” he said. “It seems to be the biggest issues.”
About half of the provisional ballots will be tossed aside because of eligibility issues, he said. County officials hope to have all provisional ballots counted by Friday.
Results can’t come quick enough for Montanez, who held a 12-vote lead after votes were counted on Election Day.
“I hoped it would be done by now,” Montanez said. “It’s taking a little longer than expected, but I’m sitting patiently waiting for final results.”
Montanez wasn’t worried that he lost his small lead by the end of last week. Instead, he remained optimistic of the final results.
“There is nothing you can do about it,” he said. “It’s a very close election. It’s still too close to call.”
Scattini realized that despite his gain in votes, the election is far from over.
“I’m not really comfortable with it,” Scattini said. “Ten votes is nothing. I’m not comfortable but I’m just happy right now. Anything can change.”
With nearly 2,000 votes to be counted or examined, only some will influence close District 2 race, Gonzalez said. The exact number is unknown, though.
Regardless, Montanez hopes for the best.
“I feel very optimistic that I can pull this off,” he said. “It’s been a pretty exciting race so far.”
