Eric Rosa Real Estate

ARCADIA ELECTION RESULTS UNDECIDED AFTER CITY RECEIVES 999 MORE BALLOTS

By Courtney Tompkins, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

POSTED: 04/13/16, 

ARCADIA  The City Council race may not be over just yet.

City Hall received 995 more ballots on Wednesday, and with a little over 400 votes between the second- and third-highest vote getters, the outcome of the race could still be decided after a final count.

After all precincts had been counted on Tuesday, anti-mansionization candidates Peter Amundson and April Verlato were leading the race, with 3,624 and 3,609 votes each, according to semi-official results.

Bob Harbicht, a veteran councilman, trailed behind Verlato, with 3,197 votes. Retired physician Sheng Chang came in fourth, with 2,260 votes, followed by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Burton Brink, who captured 1,049, and grassroots candidate Paul Van Fleet, who snagged 82 votes.

Deputy Chief City Clerk Lisa Mussenden said receiving this many ballots after the election was unprecedented.

“I think we all knew this was going to be a very contentious election, and I think this is a result of all that,” she said, “but to receive 995 ballots the day after, that’s huge.”

All had the proper postmark date and will be counted, she said. About 300 additional ballots that came in on Tuesday still need to be tallied because they did not make the cutoff that night.

The Los Angeles County clerk also received dozens of provisional ballots that must still be counted. Dozens more that came in without signatures must be given back residents for them to sign so that they can be counted, she said.

The second and final count will be completed on April 21.

The city saw record turnout this year, with over 9,000 ballots returned to date.

Because of the thousands of votes left to be tallied, neither Verlato nor Amundson were comfortable declaring victory.