By Melonie Magruder
Special to the Lookout

December 1, 2010 -- City Council candidate Ted Winterer was waiting to receive a “No Count Report” from the County of Los Angeles Registrar/Recorder Tuesday afternoon before deciding whether to request a ballot recount in his recent razor-thin loss to incumbent Bob Holbrook.

Holbrook received 12,775 votes to Winterer’s 12,719, a difference of less than 1 percent.

Sharon Gilpin, Winterer’s campaign consultant, said that she had requested the report for Santa Monica precincts on Nov. 17 from the County and was promised it today.

The No Count Report will give total numbers of provisional and Vote By Mail ballots that were rejected by the Registrar because eligibility could not be verified.

People whose names do not appear on precinct voter rolls on Election Day cast provisional ballots. Those ballots and absentee ballots that arrived by mail or were submitted in person on Election Day have been processed during the supplemental count.

“Generally, what you want to do first is to go in with a lawyer and look at all the rejected ballots,” Gilpin said. “It depends on how many ballots were actually rejected by the registrar’s office. If there are 500 rejected ballots, we would think about asking for a recount. But if there are only 50, that’s another matter.”

The County sent all electoral results to the Secretary of State’s Office and the County Board of Supervisors’ offices to be certified yesterday. Winterer has until Dec. 6 to file a recount request. Recounts can cost $4,000 per day, although this money is reimbursed to the requesting candidate in the event that a recount results in reversing the election.

Holbrook acknowledged the closeness of the race, saying that he had offered right after the election to meet with Winterer’s supporters to address their concerns.

“I was watching votes on Measure Y (the successful ballot measure for a half-cent City sales tax) very closely,” Holbrook said. “It looks like about 38,000 people cast ballots in Santa Monica, but didn’t necessarily vote through on City Council seats. Even so, it’s a tough thing for Ted because thousands of people voted for us both.”

Holbrook said he continues to want to address issues that concern Winterer’s supporters and expects that two of the big issues the City Council will face concern the future of the Santa Monica airport and the viability of light rail within the city.

“Currently, we are looking at everything that moves downtown, whether car, bus, cyclists and even pedestrians, to see how we can ameliorate traffic and parking,” Holbrook said. “I’m ready to get to work.”