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Not yet ready to declare victory with a 38-vote lead and only 42 challenged ballots left to be potentially fixed or “cured” in District 5, a member of the group seeking to recall San Benito County Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez says she is feeling positive about the trend.
Asked if she feels like the recall effort has it won, organizer Stacie McGrady said, “It’s scary to predict, and you don’t want to be wrong. But looking at the numbers, how they are coming in, it seems that way.”
The county Elections Office previously told BenitoLink the deadline to fix a ballot is June 24. The deadline to request a recount is five calendar days from the date of certification.
Chief Deputy Clerk-Recorder Ana De Castro Maquiz said her office intends to certify the results June 26.
The recall proponents have increased their lead by two votes since the most recent previous tally, according to the June 18 results update from the June 2 primary election.
Velazquez said he wanted to get the final results and then “go from there.”
If successful, it would be the first time in San Benito County history that an elected official is recalled.
According to the Elections Office, there are 42 ballots in District 5 from the 207 cast countywide that can be fixed by voters. Of those 42 ballots, 33 have a signature that doesn’t match what is on file, and nine are not signed at all.
De Castro Maquiz said of those remaining District 5 ballots, it’s unknown how many voters may have skipped that race or overvoted, meaning they marked both yes and no on the question.
According to the latest results, there have been 137 voters who skipped the race on their ballots, known as undervotes.
De Castro Maquiz said it’s hard to say how likely it is that all those ballots will be cured and that it’s up to the voters to make a decision. She noted that some voters have an “every vote matters” mentality while others might feel their vote won’t make a difference given the stage of the election.
She said there were 80 cured ballots in the November 2024 election and 602 that remained uncured.
McGrady said she expects Velazquez to request a recount if he loses.
“Those are very expensive but he apparently has plenty of money to spend on that stuff,” she said.
Velazquez said he first wanted to get the final results before considering a recount.
“It’s pretty close,” he said.
De Castro Maquiz said the Elections Office expects to update the results on June 26 by noon and certify the results by 5 p.m. that day.
She said the required 1% random count was conducted June 15 and 16, a process intended to verify that the machine count is accurate. She said the office did a random count of almost 3% of the ballots.
If the recall is successful, Velazquez would immediately be removed from office and the seat would be left vacant after the Elections Office certifies the results.
De Castro Maquiz said the Elections Office has had discussions with San Benito County Administrative Officer Esperanza Colio Warren and County Counsel Gregory Priamos about the options for holding a new election for the District 5 seat if the recall is successful, including calling for a special stand-alone election or consolidating it with Nov. 3 general election.
She said while she doesn’t have a cost estimate for either option, the latter would cost the county less because it would share costs with the other jurisdictions that will have items on the ballot.
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