Home » Joy Motts Officially Asks For Recount in Antioch City Council District 1 Race

Joy Motts Officially Asks For Recount in Antioch City Council District 1 Race

by CC News

On Tuesday, Joy Motts was informed by Contra Costa County Elections if she was to challenge the Antioch City Council District 1 results, it would cost $38,500. That is not deterring her as she officially asked for a full official recount and is accepting donations.

Motts currently sits 3 votes behind declared winner councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker who has 1,467 votes. Motts has 1,464 votes.  Last Thursday, the county did an internal audit/manual tally for District 1 which was aimed to ensure the county system was working.

Motts said Tuesday that paperwork has already been filed to challenge the results citing the race was too close to not challenge it, but that was under the assumption the challenge would cost under $10,000 number based on figures preliminary provided. Tuesday, however, she was informed of the $38,500 price tag.

Here is a statement released late Tuesday (9:40 pm) by Motts:

It has been a long month since election night, with many ups and downs. I am so very proud of the campaign we ran with the help of so many of you.

Last Thursday, the Contra Costa Elections office did a count of copies of scanned ballots from their computers. Ultimately, it showed my opponent, Tamisha Torres Walker, leading by 3 votes after having been tied in the previous vote update.

In the election this close, I believe it is important to make sure all votes were counted and all paper ballots were counted and to make sure we are validating the accuracy of the outcome. Therefore, I am asking for a full official recount.

We have found out today that unfortunately, the County is charging upwards of $38,500 for this recount, an exorbitant amount of money. Nevertheless, we are moving forward to try and raise the necessary funds. If you would like to support my efforts for a full recount, you can donate on my website at joymotts.org or use the paypal link below.

Thank you in advance for your consideration. I do not know if we will ultimately be successful, but I think we will all feel more secure with the results. Much love.

She included a donate link – click here


Richmond Could Also See Recount Request

The cost could come down for Motts, should Andrew Butt challenge the Richmond City Council District 2 results.

Butt and Cesar Zepeda tied and a winner was declared via lot–in their case, two names entered into a bag, the bag was shaken, and Zepeda’s name was pulled thus declaring him the winner.

That could drop the cost to approximently $20k each for Butt and Motts challenges to go forward.

Question to County Elections:

  • How did they come up with $38,500 for a recount?
  • What would the cost be should two races be recounted?
  • Does a recount ensure every vote is counted that was cast?
  • Does this recount verify each vote is by a valid voter? Or just re-running the cards again? Would signatures be verified?
  • If successfully challenged, would candidate get their money back?

Check back for updates.


Contra Costa County Elections Reminds Residents “Ballot Harvesting” is Legal Under State Law

Contra Costa County Elections reminds residents that “ballot harvesting” is legal under state law and did confirm 14 people are registered to vote using Antioch City Hall.

According to County Elections:

Unhoused citizens are eligible to vote. A residence address is not required, but a residence location, e.g., a cross-street or other location where they consider their home base, is. It is legal for someone to make an effort to go to the unhoused population to register them to vote. Ballot harvesting is also legal, and is the process of someone collecting voted Vote-by-Mail ballots with the voter’s permission and returning them to us on behalf of the voter.  The term is sometimes used to describe what people think is dumping batches of ballots into drop boxes, but “naked” ballots, i.e., those without a signed VBM envelope that can be attributed to a specific registered voter, would be rejected.

Any person who registers may choose a different mailing address than that of their residence.  We see many unhoused persons request General Delivery at their local post office as their mailing address, or use a PO box, or the mailing address of a friend or relative. We have 14 voters who are listing the City Hall as their residence address, but unhoused persons are not required to do so.  

The deadline to register to vote was October 24; any online or paper registrations after that date would not have received a ballot in the mail.  The only way to register that close to the election and still vote would have been in person at our office in Martinez (48 hours to Election Day), or in person at Regional Early Voting site on Monday or on Election Day via CVR (Conditional Voter Registration – these are being processed with the Provisional ballots, and I don’t have a count on those just yet.) The 2 Regional Early Voting sites closest to Antioch were in Pittsburg at the Pittsburg Library (8 Provisionals) and in Brentwood at the Brentwood Community Center (16 Provisionals). The number of people who registered and voted in our office in Martinez on Monday, November 7 is 12. We were not open on Sunday.

The Contra Costa Elections Division social media pages are:

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