DEMOCRATS ASK FOR RECOUNT IN SANTEE DISTRICT 4
Republican Dustin Trotter beat Samm Hurst by 5 votes
SANTEE
San Diego County Democrats have asked the Registrar of Voters Office for a manual recount in the Santee City Council District 4 race between Dustin Trotter and Samm Hurst, which Trotter won by five votes.
Trotter, a carpenter and business owner, was declared the winner in one of the county’s closest races in November. Trotter, a Republican, received 3,920 votes; Hurst, a Democrat who is a public health scientist and college instructor, got 3,915 votes in the election that was certified on Dec. 3.
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party and executive board member of the California Democratic Party, sent Registrar Michael Vu a letter on Monday with a request for a recount on behalf of Hurst.
Vu said the recount would take place no later than seven days after receipt of the request for the recount. He said he received the letter after 5 p.m. the day before the 5 p.m. Dec. 8 deadline to request a recount. Rodriguez-Kennedy
copied Santee City Clerk Annette Ortiz on the email.
“Given the closeness of the vote, I believe a thorough recount could affect the outcome,” Rodriguez-Kennedy wrote. “This process will ensure the credibility and fairness of our electoral system for the voters of the City of Santee.”
Rodriguez-Kennedy said he wanted a review of all voted ballots that were not counted in the official canvass for District 4, “including unopened or rejected voteby-mail ballots and provisional ballots, and any relevant information related to those ballots.”
He also said that he wanted to “examine damaged and corresponding remade ballots ... data cards, magnetic or other media used to record and store vote data” and other relevant material.”
Rodriguez-Kennedy said relevant materials might include unvoted ballots, voteby-mail and provisional ballot envelopes and other items.
Vu said the group requesting the recount will have to come up with a deposit to pay for a manual recount before it begins. Vu said he was still figuring out how much that will cost.
The price for a recount typically involves an equation that includes how many ballots there are and how many people are needed to count them. Typically there is a minimum of four people to recount a set of ballots, but Vu was not sure how many teams of four will be needed.
Vu also said when the counting is finished, if there is a change in the outcome, the deposit will be returned.
In an interview late Tuesday, Rodriguez-Kennedy said the party is “well positioned to pay the deposit.”
The last recount in San Diego County was also requested by local Democrats. It was for a City Council seat in Chula Vista in 2014, when John McCann defeated Steve Padilla by two votes.
In that race, McCann had 18,448 votes and Padilla 18,446 votes. RodriguezKennedy said it cost between $50,000 and $60,000 for that, and he expected the recount in Santee of less than 8,000 votes to cost far less.
The San Diego County Democratic Party has started an online fund at