Crazily, only one vote separated congressional candidates Evan Low and Joe Simitian as the final votes were counted earlier this week, and one vote was added to Simitian's tally, resulting in a dead-even tie.
Assemblyman Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian are vying to replace outgoing Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, alongside former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Liccardo secured first place in last month's primary election, but things were very, very close in the final ballot counting between Low and Simitian for the second slot.
As KTVU reports, one final problematic ballot was "cured" on Wednesday, giving Simitian one more vote to tie things up.
It remains unclear if either candidate will request a recount, which their campaigns will have to pay for.
Bay Area News Group reported last week that a manual recount could cost as much as $32,000 per day, and could run as long as 10 days — and this could still result in a tie.
If that is the case, or if no recount is called before the election gets certified on April 12, the ballot for California's 16th Congressional District will have three candidates instead of two.
But, some strategy will be at work here for the candidates, vis a vis a game of probabilities about any remaining challenged ballots. Voters had until April 2 to "cure" any challenged ballots and it's not clear how many may remain.
As one election law expert, Matthew Alvarez, told Bay Area News Group, campaigns will be looking at the names of voters whose ballots remain uncured. "You get those names, you run it through your data, and you see where those voters are, where they live," Alvarez tells the news group. "If they’re in a precinct that went 60% for Evan, then statistically Evan’s going to assume it’s one of his voters."
At last count, per Bay Area News Group, as of a February reporting deadline, neither Low's nor Simitian's campaign was rolling in dough to fund a recount. Simitian’s campaign had $588,745 in the bank and Low’s had $345,371. But they would likely go on a fundraising push if they thought a recount would benefit them.
Otherwise, the November election for Eshoo's seat will be a three-way replay of the primary.
Eshoo, 81, announced her retirement in November, after over 30 years representing the 16th District.