BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Kern County Elections Office completed a recount requested by Republican candidate in the California State Senate District 16 race on December 28. On January 5, the same office launched a second recount, this time at the request of the Democratic incumbent Melissa Hurtado.
This election was very close. Just 20 votes separated Shepard and Hurtado when the election was originally certified. After the first recount, Shepard gained four votes and Hurtado lost one. Still not enough to change the outcome.
Hurtado says in her letter to the Kern County Elections Office that she requested another recount because Shepard's initial request only including one-fifth of eligible Kern County voting precincts.
The second recount began Thursday morning and could last nearly two weeks at an estimated cost of $7,700 per day to Hurtado, according to Assistant Kern County Clerk Aimee Espinoza.
Hurtado submitted her letter after the completion of Shepard's initial recount request under the 24-hour rule requiring interested parties to submit their request for review of additional information within 24 hours of the first recount's completion.
"Here in the elections office, we finished a recount for Shepard, a request from Shepard's campaign last week, and on Thursday, Hurtado's campaigns requested additional precincts that weren't covered in the original request, and so today we began the recount of those additional precincts," said Espinoza.
In her letter to the Registrar of Voters of Kern County, Melissa Hurtado said:
While the mostly complete Shepard recount is reviewing all ballots cast in Fresno and Kings Counties, as well as half of Tulare County, it only included one-fifth of Kern county. Mr. Shepard's limited recount in Kern concluded without an examination of materials or recount in precincts other than those most favorable to his campaign.
Espinoza says she doesn't expect the results of the second recount to change the outcome of the election, but the office is honoring Hurtado's request.
"As requested, we're going to pull all of our ballots for the requested precincts and then run them through our tabulators to compare the results, and then also we'll look at over/under-voted ballots, and we will also look at challenge signatures and vote-by-mail envelopes," said Espinoza.
As with the recount requested by Shepard, any members of the public who would like to observe the Hurtado recount are free to do so, but space is limited. Anyone interested in observing is asked to contact the Kern County Elections Office at 868-3590 for more details.
