The recount was requested last month by Jonathan Padilla, a tech entrepreneur and former Liccardo campaign staffer, who donated $1,000 to Liccardo’s congressional campaign in December. Those ties led to criticisms from Low and his allies that Liccardo and his supporters were orchestrating the recount to narrow the field to two candidates.
Padilla said his efforts, which included helping to start a political committee to raise money for the recount’s costs, were intended to both ensure a proper count and to prevent a three-way general election in which a candidate could claim the seat with less than 50% of the vote.
“I have not spoken to Mr. Liccardo about this. I have not spoken to anybody in the campaign about this,” Padilla told KQED early in the recount. “I’ve had no meaningful contact with anybody in the Liccardo campaign since I made my donation at the end of December.”
The independent expenditure committee that Padilla helped create, called Count the Vote, paid over $300,000 for a machine recount in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, as California does not have a law to trigger an automatic government-funded recount.
Padilla requested the recount on behalf of Low, even though the candidate said he opposed the effort. Lawyers for California’s Secretary of State’s office ruled last week that Padilla could not recoup his costs even if Low finished ahead of Simitian because Low would already be heading to the general election by virtue of the tie.
A group of lawyers with the Santa Clara County Government Attorneys Association filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission last week, arguing that recount backers coordinated their efforts with Liccardo without disclosing their activities as in-kind contributions to Liccardo’s campaign.
The recount committee has until July 15 to report its donors, per federal guidelines.
Liccardo’s campaign has denied any involvement in the recount. On Tuesday, Liccardo wrote in an op-ed in San Jose Inside, “Neither I nor anyone in my campaign has communicated with Padilla or his donors about the recount.”
“The fact that Padilla is a supporter of mine is not remarkable; every independent expenditure committee in history has been created by a candidate’s supporter,” Liccardo added.
Liccardo commended election officials on Wednesday for working to ensure an accurate result.
Election officials began the process of recounting ballots earlier this month, which involved running them back through counting machines.
Padilla’s lawyers also challenged a number of ballots that were left out of the initial count after being deemed ineligible by election officials. These included ballots received without a postmark date and others that were cast by individuals who registered to vote on the same day they cast a ballot — and who did not check a box attesting to their U.S. citizenship.
Of the 45 uncounted ballots that were challenged in Santa Clara County, seven were ultimately included in the recount. Additionally, 19 ballots that the registrar said it had “not tallied due to human errors by the tabulation machine operators” were included in the final count, while three ballots mistakenly counted twice were removed.
In San Mateo County, 28 ballots were challenged, 16 of which were challenged because of their postmark date and when they actually arrived at the elections office. Seven of those ballots ultimately added to the tally, giving Low one additional vote.
