The hand recount of ballots cast in the Aromas-San Juan Unified
school board election is expected to end today, bringing the
contested election a bit closer to being settled once and for
all.
Hollister – The hand recount of ballots cast in the Aromas-San Juan Unified school board election is expected to end today, bringing the contested election a bit closer to being settled once and for all.
San Benito County election workers began recounting ballots from the Nov. 2 election on Monday, which ended in a tie between board members Rachel Ponce and Sylvia Rios-Metcalf. The tie was broken picking a name out of a basket a week ago, prompting Ponce – who was not selected – to request a hand recount.
The recount has been finished in Santa Cruz County and has not yet started in Monterey, the two other counties served by Aromas school district. Together the three counties have to recount nearly 5,000 ballots by hand before announcing the results.
Ponce, a trustee for eight years, said she suspected irregularities in the counting and thought it was highly suspicious the votes would end in the exact same number for both her and Rios Metcalf. Now she is paying $600 per day to the San Benito County Elections Office for a team of four workers to manually count the ballots. She was in the elections office all day Monday observing the recount, according to an elections worker there.
“I just want to make sure everything is accurate,” said Ponce last week.
Ponce and Metcalf received 1,433 votes each in the Aromas-San Juan school board, an unprecedented event in a school board election, said John Hodges, county elections official.
“I think what’s unusual is that the two incumbents were the ones who tied while the other two seats went to newcomers,” said Kim Hawk, an elections coordinator at the office.
Aromas school board officials are elected to four year terms and do not receive any compensation besides health insurance. Ponce was in the lead among San Benito County voters, but fell behind after ballots from the other counties were tabulated.
The last time San Benito saw a tie was in 1988 when Ernie Schiffner and Matt Escover tied in Hollister council elections, said Hodges, who has been an elections official in the county since 1983. That was resolved by lot also, when candidates pulled straws to select a winner, he said.
Karina Ioffee covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or ki*****@fr***********.com
