The Town of Yucca Valley will have to foot the bill for the recent recount of recall petitions against council members George Huntington and Robert Lombardo. Managing Editor Tami Roleff explains that the $20,000 bill includes nearly $8,000 for a hand recount, and the final bill will likely be much more…
The $20,120.12 bill from the County Elections office for counting, verifying and validating the signatures on the recall petitions for Yucca Valley Town Council members George Huntington and Robert Lombardo is not the final cost for the petition recall. According to the bill sent to the Town by the Registrar of Voters, it cost $12,269.73 for the initial count and examination of the signatures on the two recall petitions, which determined that the recall for Huntington and Lombardo failed by about 200 signatures. Yucca Valley Town Clerk Lesley Copeland said that at the request of the recall proponents, the Elections Office performed a recount of the signatures; two members of the elections office staff verified and validated the more than 2,700 signatures on the two petitions—at a cost of $7,850.39—and determined that only 30 or so signatures on each petition had not been counted properly, still far below what was needed to send the recall to the ballot. Copeland added that the $20,000 bill does not include the fees by the Town’s attorney, or time spent by Town staff on the recall petition. When the attorney’s fees are submitted, the Town Council will be asked to approve a budget request for the fees.
HAND COUNTING OF RECALL BALLOTS COST TOWN $8,000.00 MORE
