Worker Error Blamed for 7 Missing Votes : Election: Recount reverses results, giving Mike Donelon an edge of one ballot over Tonia Reyes Uranga for council seat. City clerk's office insists new tally is accurate.

By JOHN POPE

June 30, 1994 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Officials of the Long Beach city clerk’s office on Tuesday blamed employee error for an election snafu that turned a City Council candidate’s narrow victory into a one-vote loss, but they insisted that the current results are accurate and verifiable.

In a public explanation before the City Council Tuesday, Deputy City Clerk Deborah Wright said that “simple human exhaustion” probably led to the office’s failure to count seven ballots in the race for the 7th District council seat.

The seven additional ballots were included in the June 22 recount of the race, giving contractor Mike Donelon a one-vote win over Tonia Reyes Uranga in Long Beach’s June 7 election.

Wright told the council that the clerk’s office was not able to determine exactly what happened to the votes, but she speculated that the error occurred about 2 a.m. when a clerk was feeding the last ballots into a counting machine.

The clerk, who had been working 20 hours, apparently handed some ballots to another clerk to expedite the counting process, Wright said. In the switch, a short stack of ballots apparently was not fed through the machine, she said.

Workers at the next station, who matched the total votes cast with the total counted, failed to catch the mistake, Wright said.

She insisted, however, that any vote-tampering would have been impossible. The boxes were then sealed and placed in a storage room in City Hall, Wright said. The room is locked and accessible only to the city clerk’s staff.

The seven uncounted ballots were absentee votes from a California Heights precinct, an area of strong Donelon support. Donelon received six of the votes and Uranga received one, giving him a one-vote lead, 2,932 to 2,931.

On election night, Uranga was ahead by 29 votes. But her lead shrank later that week as late absentee and provisional ballots were counted. After the City Council certified the election results June 14, Donelon asked for a recount. The additional uncounted ballots that turned up in the recount were enough to gave Donelon a one-vote edge.

The candidates are seeking to represent the 7th District, which covers parts of central and west Long Beach.

Donelon, president of the California Heights Neighborhood Assn., was the top vote-getter in the April primary elections. But Uranga, a community activist and former president of the Long Beach Children’s Museum, made a strong bid during the runoffs, amassing the most campaign money among candidates in the council elections. Both enjoyed strong community support--Uranga from the west side of the city and Donelon from California Heights, a neighborhood in central Long Beach near Bixby Knolls.

On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien temporarily blocked the council from certifying the recount and ruled that Uranga should be allowed to examine some questionable ballots. A further hearing on the case is scheduled for July 6.

In a move that could bolster Uranga’s challenge, council members voted unanimously Tuesday night to ask City Clerk Shelba Powell to re-evaluate about 30 provisional and absentee ballots that she excluded from the vote tabulations for various reasons.

Mayor Ernie Kell, who also supported the council’s request, said he hopes the move “will give the candidates and public a better feeling of integrity in the election process.”

Powell, the sole arbitrator over ballot rejections, could choose to ignore the council’s request, said Assistant City Atty. Robert E. Shannon. If she does, however, Uranga could ask a judge to decide whether some of the rejected ballots should be counted.

If Powell accepts any of the ballots that Uranga challenges, they would be considered part of the recount. About 20 or 30 ballots were thrown out by Powell, Wright said.

A date has not been set for Uranga to examine the ballots, said Deputy City Clerk Bill Joder.

Powell has been on vacation and is expected to return Tuesday.

About a dozen Uranga supporters staged a small demonstration outside City Hall before the council meeting. They attended the meeting carrying signs with messages such as “Something Stinks in the 7th (District),” and “Who Really Cast the Mystery 7 Votes?”

Uranga’s attorney, Fredric D. Woocher, praised the council’s move. “It may not resolve anything but will get us that much closer,” Woocher said.

He said he will probably argue that the seven additional votes that changed the election should not be counted. “The chain of custody on those ballots is out the window,” he said. “There is definitely potential for a challenge.”

Joder said the clerk’s office has matched each vote to a registered voter’s name and found the final tally to be correct.

But Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal said he was troubled by the missing votes. “By certifying the election of Uranga, we agreed that the electoral process in that district was fair and accurate. Then more ballots turned up in recount,” Lowenthal said. “What if we certify Donelon and they find more votes?”