Story Created:
Nov 9, 2009 at 2:55 PM PST
Story Updated:
Nov 12, 2009 at 1:43 PM PST
LYNWOOD — As the counting of provisional and absentee ballots continues from te Nov. 3 municipal election, former City Treasurer Iris Pygatt has passed incumbent City Councilman Ramon Rodriguez by three votes in the race for the last City Council seat.
When the counting ended Nov. 3, all three City Council incumbents were leading in the vote count, although Pygatt was only 18 votes behind Rodriguez.
An update posted Tuesday by the county Registrar-Recorder’s Office, however, showed Pygatt with 809 votes, compared to Rodriguez’s 806.
According to Marcia Ventura, a spokesperson for the Registrar-Recorder’s Office, no election is ever final on election night.
“After every election, an official canvas is required by law,” Ventura said. “A canvas includes a full auditing of every ballot that has been cast, including any ballots that still need to be counted after election night. Friday was our first update of that process.”
Provisional ballots are ballots cast at local precincts when individuals are not on the roster at that precinct.
“All of those ballots are still eligible, but in order to be counted, the signature … has to be verified … to make sure those individuals are registered to vote in that election,” Ventura said.
The canvas also includes the counting of write-in ballots. The Registrar-Recorder’s Office is given 28 days by law to conduct the canvas after election day.
The Registrar-Recorder’s Office will be updating the numbers every Tuesday and Friday through Nov. 23, the date in which Ventura said, the county is anticipating finishing with all of its post-election canvassing.
Updates then are scheduled to be uploaded onto www.lavote.net by 5 p.m. each Tuesday and Friday.
After the canvas is completed, the county Board of Supervisors will certify the election’s results. According to Ventura, the county intends for the results to be certified during the Board of Supervisor’s Nov. 24 meeting.
Ventura said there is no way of knowing how many more ballots await to be counted and verified.
Rodriguez said that he will not be contesting the final numbers once they are tallied on Nov. 23.
“I’m not ever in any election for myself,” he said. “I’m here if the people want me to be here. We’ve always known that the numbers on election night aren’t final. That’s how it’s always been, so it is my opinion, that whatever the community wishes, I will respect that.”
Pygatt could not be reached for comment for this story.
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