Wilson, Hosp Await District 7 Runoff Election Final Vote Counting Tonight in Dramatically Close Race

[Updated Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | 7:10 a.m.] Ahead of tonight’s final ballot counting session in the Pasadena City Council District 7 race which currently stands at challenger Phil Hosp leading incumbent Andy Wilson by a mere 20 votes, City Clerk Mark Jomsky has determined that 22 of about 370 remaining ballots are not eligible to be included.

Last Tuesday’s election night vote counting resulted in a race city officials said was “too close to call.” In the week since, Jomsky has been overseeing the qualifying of remaining mail-in and provisional ballots for the final counting tonight at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers.

Jomsky’s determinations in the cases of 15 vote-by-mail and 7 provisional ballots were reviewed during a Tuesday meeting in a City Hall conference room to which both candidates were invited but only one attended.

Phil Hosp came. Wilson didn’t, but sent Jon Fuhrman, his campaign treasurer, and George Yin, an attorney.

During yesterday’s afternoon meeting, Hosp and Wilson’s representatives were permitted to examine the ballots which have been determined to be ineligible by Jomsky.

A City Hall source said earlier that Jomsky has overseen a signature verification process to validate the eligibility for inclusion of the remaining ballots in tonight’s counting. Signatures on ballot envelopes were compared to voters’ signatures in County records.

In his official capacity as City Clerk, Jomsky made the final decisions about each ballot’s eligibility, disqualifying those where the signatures didn’t appear to match County records and, when uncertain, submitting ballots to County officials for verification.

The number of ballots which have been determined to be ineligible is greater than the razor-thin lead currently held by Hosp over Wilson.

Last week, Wilson said he was considering options — which could include demanding a recount — should the final outcome tonight go against him.

Jomsky said his office will perform a partial recount regardless, as a matter of law.

In an email to Pasadena Now last week, Jomsky explained that the Elections Code mandates a partial recount regardless of outcome. For this race, Jomsky said, “one Vote by Mail precinct and one polling site precinct” will be recounted by his office. It is required for every election by the Elections Code, so there is no cost to the candidates, he said.

If a candidate wants a full recount of all votes cast, Jomsky said, that candidate would have to foot the bill.

In his email Jomsky declined to speculate on the cost of a full recount, saying he does not yet have that information.

The vote counting at Pasadena City Hall tonight is open to the public.

Jomsky said that after the votes are machine counted he will announce the unofficial winner of the election, which likely will come before 6 p.m. He said he will then perform a final verification process that will culminate in an official result, which may take some time but will be concluded directly after the machine count, he said.