BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Challenge or no challenge, that is what David Shepard and Melissa Hurtado's representatives were figuring out as both sides looked at ballot envelopes to verify signatures. At the time of air, at least one ballot envelope has been challenged. But how exactly does this work?
"A request can be to recount every single ballot, for certain district, it would be every ballot in that district, or it can be more focused with individual precincts identified, which is what this request was," explained Aimee Espinoza, the Kern County registrar of voters elect.
For Kern County, the results on the elections website show 317 precincts included in the race. But during the conversations between Shepard’s team and elections officials, Shepard's team said they wanted to start by looking at 70 precincts. Among those 70 precincts in this specific recount, Espinoza with the elections office says 80 submitted ballots were challenged, meaning they were unopened and uncounted due to either no signature or not being able to verify the signature.
"Something that people might now know is that interested parties, they really do run a lot of the process."
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That is why only interested parties, which are the representatives of both Shepard and Hurtado’s team, are the only ones allowed to review and challenge the signature verification. However, they are not the only ones allowed in the room.
"Also, any bonafide political organization," said Espinoza.
In this case, the Election Integrity Project was allowed in, along with the media.
"I thought we were going to go to be told about the process or even walkthrough, but I guess that is just not the way it is, but yeah, I did lose a day of pay," said Bakersfield resident Skye Dent who came to observe.
Dent has been a poll worker since 2017. As the only public member not part of a political organization or an interested party, she had to look at the process from outside the glass room, which was expected to last a regular workday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
And the whole recount comes with a price.
"Estimated costs is $6,226 a day. That was for the first day because it did include some costs prior to our starting day and yes Shepard's campaign did make that pay prior to the recount start," explained Espinoza.
Shepard’s team, confirmed they paid $6,500. After the 70 precincts, they will also be looking at adjudicated ballots, which is either an overvote or undervote in the races with multiple choices.
"So the adjudication is actually having human eyes on it, looking at the intent of the voter was so a big "X" and circle on the other is clear what the voter intended," said Espinoza.
Since Tulare, Fresno, and now Kern have started their recount process, the only county left to start is King. The staff is hoping the process does not go into next week but it is a possibility.