Liccardo supporter willing to pay for recount of votes in House race

BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT

Daily Post Staff Writer

One of former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo’s supporters filed for a recount yesterday in the race for Congress, hoping to break an unprecedented tie that’s given Liccardo two competitors rather than one.

Any change in the vote would send home either Assemblyman Evan Low, 40, of Campbell, or Supervisor Joe Simitian, 71, of Palo Alto.

Jonathan Padilla, 35, of San Jose, asked yesterday (April 9) for a recount to be completed manually, said Michael Borja, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

Mark Church, chief elections officer in San Mateo County, confirmed that Padilla requested a recount before yesterday’s 5 p.m. deadline but didn’t have any further details.

Low’s campaign sent a statement out yesterday: “This is a page right out of Trump’s political playbook using dirty tricks to attack democracy and subvert the will of the voters. Sam Liccardo, who does not live in the district, did not file a recount himself. Instead, he had his former staffer do it for him. What’s he afraid of?”

Simitian said on a phone call last night that he is focused on representing the people in the district.

“It’s all just politics. Eventually the process will work itself out,” he said.

A recount in Santa Clara County will take about 10 days and cost Padilla about $32,000 per day, for a total of $320,000, Borja said.

The recount will start on Monday if Padilla’s payment comes through, Borja said.

Padilla could get his money back if the results change in his favor, according to state election code.

Padilla has a history of donating to the Democratic party, and he gave Liccardo’s campaign $1,000 on Dec. 31, campaign finance forms show.

The recount isn’t affiliated with Liccardo’s campaign, but a campaign spokesman welcomed the recount yesterday.

“Every vote should be counted, and that’s why recounts are part of the state’s electoral process to ensure accuracy,” spokesman Orrin Evans said.

More than 100 ballots were not included in the final tally in Santa Clara County because voter signatures could not be verified, Evans said.

“We understand why, under these extraordinary circumstances, there would be an effort to make sure these votes are fully considered,” Evans said.

Padilla is registered to vote outside the Congressional district. He is a Harvard graduate and co-founder of Snickerdoodle Labs, a data company that uses the same technology as Bitcoin.

Padilla is the co-founder and deputy director of Stanford’s “Future of Digital Currency Initiative,” according to his LinkedIn. 

Liccardo, 53, teaches at Stanford. He also lives outside the Congressional district in San Jose but is looking to move within the boundaries, according to his campaign.

Liccardo finished with 38,489 votes in the results certified on Thursday. 

Low and Simitian received 30,249 votes each.

Pacifica resident Dan Stegink also asked for a recount yesterday, but he wants the counties to pay for it.

After Low and Simitian tied, both campaigns put out statements about moving on to the November election.

A three-way race could give Low a boost in the general election, when voters are more likely to pick a candidate for their identity than their policy positions, according to Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson.

Low is younger than his opponents, a person of color and openly gay, Michelson said in an interview last week.

“There’s a certain segment of voters who, as Democrats, would prefer they are represented by someone other than a straight white man,” Michelson said.

The tie between Simitian and Low is only the second tie since California switched to a top-two system in June 2010, rather than having one candidate advance from each political  party. 

The first tie happened in Los Angeles in 2016 between two write-in candidates who received 64 votes each.