Possible recount in District 16 race in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties

Both Evan Low and Joe Simitian totaled exactly 30,249 votes — representing 16.6% of the electorate — across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, with Liccardo comfortably ahead with 38,489 votes. The top two in a primary election advance to the general in California but a tie meant all three advanced.

If a campaign chooses to request a recount, it had five days after April 4, or April 9 — when elections results are officially certified by counties — to do so. Election results will be officially certified by the state April 12. 

To request a machine recount in Santa Clara County would cost $16,840 a day and take approximately five days, totaling $84,200, Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters spokesperson Michael Borja said. A manual recount, with ballots tallied by hand, would cost $32,000 a day and take approximately 10 days, totaling $320,000. 

In San Mateo County, setup for counting one precinct costs $3,250 and $1,100 to set up for batch counting, regardless of if the count selected is manual or by machine, Jim Irizarry, assistant chief elections officer, said. 

To use all seven machine scanners costs $4,550 per day. A manual count costs $2,600 per one “precinct board” — a group of elections official counters assigned to count one precinct — and $1,050 per additional board, making the cost of a recount highly dependent on selected scope and size, Irizarry said. 

Mark Church, chief elections officer for San Mateo County, said more information would be released once his office had an opportunity to review and process the requests.

Representatives from Liccardo’s campaign did not respond to requests to comments, but a Low campaign spokesperson sent over a statement.

“This is a page right out of Trump’s political playbook using dirty tricks to attack democracy and subvert the will of the voters,” the statement said. “Sam Liccardo, who does not live in the district, did not file a recount himself. Instead, he had his former staffer do it for him. What’s he afraid of?”

Simitian said the recent development is just politics.

“Eventually this process will work out, and for now I’d like to focus on how best to represent the folks in this district,” he said.

A poll, conducted by McGuire Research, was circulating ahead of the deadline asking residents who they would vote for if the election was held today, and who they would vote for if Liccardo ran only against Low or Simitian.

It makes sense for Liccardo to request a recount and knock out a competitor, Brian Parvizshahi, a South Bay political strategist, said.

Liccardo is the most moderate candidate, and a three-way runoff could risk the 5% lead he had over Low and Simitian in the primaries. Low, conversely, could have the upper hand as the only LGBTQ and Asian candidate — and the most progressive because he can stand out against two older white men who might split the moderate vote, Parvizshahi said.