John Cole, who lost his 4 th District seat on the Twentynine Palms City Council to challenger Karmolette O’Gilvie by two votes, 347 to 345, will not be asking for a recount. The final count took almost a month to complete with Cole at first leading by 12 votes and then a long period where he and O’Gilvie were trading the leads nightly by one and two votes with each update by the County Registrar of Voters. In an interview with Z107.7 News, Cole said he had investigated the recount process, but sticker shock and the unwieldy process proved to be too much to consider. While Cole was mostly concerned with an accurate count on the absentee and provisional votes counted after election night, the registrar said no procedures were in place to count just those. The estimate was $21,000 for the registrar to hire staff, prepare for the count, and then execute the count with some 200 boxes of ballots. Cole was most concerned with maintaining the continuity of the progress of Project Phoenix, the city’s downtown revitalization project. Cole said he could use the money for much better things, saying, “$21,000 could be used to feed a lot of people,” and cancelled the recount request Tuesday afternoon. Cole wished O’Gilvie well, in remarks just after the election he said, “I think she’s stepping in to an exciting time for the city, and there’s lots of terrific people on the staff and on the council for her to work with. It should be a rewarding experience for her.”
