Three likely to go to Congressional general election in November

The heated contest to succeed U.S. Rep Anna Eshoo in Congress is now slated to become a three-way race, with both Joe Simitian and Evan Low ending up with 30,249 votes on April 3 and all the ballots counted.

The result means that unless one of them requests a recount, a potentially costly exercise, both would end up on the November ballot along with former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who finished comfortably in first during the March 5 primary.

But things have been far nervier for Simitian, a Santa Clara County supervisor, and Low, a state Assembly member. Simitian took an early lead of 2 percentage points and more than 1,000 votes on primary day. Low gradually narrowed the deficit and ultimately eliminated it. For the past few weeks, the two have been swapping places in the standings, though neither could maintain an edge of more than a few votes.

That pattern remained in place on the morning of April 3, the last day before results are officially certified. Low was ahead by a single vote at the beginning of the day. Then, the San Mateo County Registrar’s Office announced that it had found one ballot that had been challenged and “cured” before 5 p.m. on April 2, the final day for correcting ballots with technical errors.

“The ballot was in the very close race for U.S. Representative, District 16, which encompasses parts of both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. As a result of this ballot, Joe Simitian gained an additional vote,” Mark Church, San Mateo County chief election officer said, in an April 3 statement declaring its final election results.

The Santa Clara County Registrar has also completed its process for correcting problematic ballots and its results are not expected to change from this point on, Evelyn Mendez, public information officer with Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, told this publication.

“There are not more cured ballots that can pop up today that would change it for us,” Mendez said.

Situations in which an election ends in a tie are governed by Election Code 8142, which states:

“If only one candidate receives the highest number of votes cast but there is a tie vote among two or more candidates receiving the second highest number of votes cast, each of those second-place candidates shall be a candidate at the ensuing general election along with the candidate receiving the highest number of votes cast, regardless of whether there are more candidates at the general election than prescribed by this article.”

Candidates will still have a chance to request a recount. Both campaigns have yet to comment on whether they will do so. The period in which such requests can be made begins on April 4, Mendez said. She estimated that a machine recount would cost about $80,000 and take about a week to complete, while a hand count would take about $300,000 and take two or three weeks (this only takes into account the recount in Santa Clara County and not a separate potential recount that could be requested in San Mateo County).

But barring such a request and any further changes in the county as a result of a recount, the November race is now slated to feature three candidates: Liccardo, Low and Simitian.

Mendez said that the District 16 results underscore the importance of voting. The county, she said, had a turnout of only 37% in the primary election. San Mateo County did slightly better with a turnout of 40%.

“We want the voters to know that every single vote counts,” Mendez said. “It’s important to vote. We don’t want a small majority making all the decisions for the county.”