Congressional recount begins in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties

In San Mateo County, a machine recount costs around $5,000 a day, with fluctuation based on the specific requests — in this case, a request for the precincts to be counted in a specific order will cost the requester more, Jim Irizarry, San Mateo County assistant chief elections officer, said. 

Similarly, in Santa Clara County, cost fluctuates by request, but the deposit daily estimate is $16,000 a day, Steve Goltiao, associate communications officer for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, said. Monday and Tuesday’s cost was a $12,000 deposit. 

The requests were technically filed on behalf of candidate Evan Low — who, alongside candidate Joe Simitian, earned 16.6% of the vote — although he rejected calls for a recount altogether. 

Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo remains in a comfortable first place with 21% of the vote, although he said in a previous statement he’s supportive of a recount. His former policy and finance director Jonathan Padilla filed the current recount, although Padilla said he’s not communicating or coordinating with any campaign. 

Low said on Twitter Friday, via a statement from his legal counsel, that under California law, because the election involves two or more candidates, it would be illegal for requesters to receive money back. 

Irizarry said previously that, per elections code, if recounts result in Low moving toward a second-place finish, requesters will be reimbursed.

Now, both San Mateo and Santa Clara county elections officials say their respective county legal counsel is reviewing the law and the Low campaign’s request. 

“Typically, the law would state that if the requester files a recount request on behalf of a candidate, and if that candidate changes in their favor, the law states the requester would receive their money back,” Goltiao said, noting that it’s now under legal review.  

Pacifica resident Dan Stegink originally filed a separate recount request but withdrew it last Friday because he was asking for a machine recount and Padilla’s original ask for a manual count overrode him, he said. Padilla himself later changed tacks to ask the counties for a machine count, Goltiao said. 

Regardless, Stegink has been at the recount each day so far and is confident it will result in one candidate being removed from the three-way runoff. 

“I guarantee there will only be two candidates in this race when the recount is complete,” he said.