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California State Senate District 16 recount continues

Kern County Assistant Clerk Aimee Espinoza says elections workers came in during the holiday recess to work on the recount process.
District 16 recount
Posted at 9:18 PM, Dec 27, 2022
and last updated 2022-12-28 00:27:24-05

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The recount continues in the California State Senate District 16 race between candidate David Shepard and incumbent Melissa Hurtado.

On Day 4 of the recount, the assistant auditor/controller/county clerk Aimee Espinoza says they're in the final stretch, estimating the count to be around 80 percent complete.

"We have sorted all of the ballots that have been requested and we moved them into the count room this morning, and so that is really the last of the process to count those votes," said Espinoza.

Election workers came in over the holiday recess to make sure the recount happened timely.

"And the votes will be tallied and then compared to the original results from the certification on December 8," said Espinoza.

In Kern County, the original certified results of the District 16 race showed that Hurtado won 58 percent of the vote while Shepard took 41 percent. At the state level, there was just a 20 vote difference separating the candidates. Following recounts in the other counties in District 16, Kings, Tulare, and Fresno counties, Shepard could easily find enough votes for victory.

"Unless it changed the outcome of the election, it stays here in Kern County," said Espinoza. "We are not anticipating a change in the original results we certified at this point."

After the recount is complete, both interested parties, Hurtado and Shepard, will review the final count, and once they agree on it, the process is done. However, because the Shepard campaign only asked to look at 70 precincts, there is a chance they'll ask to look at the remaining 247.

"If that were the case," explained Espinoza, "then we would essentially have to do the process we have been doing for the past several days all over again to pull those additional ballots."

The full process is fairly slow, from the review of the challenged ballots to running each ballot through the tabulation machines. Elections workers began that process at 10:30 Tuesday morning and an hour later, they were still working through the first of 9 trays holding ballots.

According to Espinoza, the process is intentionally slow and methodical.

"What has gone to the count room today, each ballot, at least in this process, has been touched at least 5 or 6 times, again ensuring that everything is correct as it is going in the count room," said Espinoza.

At last check, the Elections Office was looking to pull more staff to help with the tabulation process. They hope to be done by the end of Tuesday, and if not, they will continue until the recount is complete.

This particular recount is only relevant to Kern County results. Additional results will have to come in from Tulare, Kings, and Fresno Counties, all of which are also recounting ballots.

Stay connected to 23ABC for the latest information as the District 16 recount continues.