Candidate that could be affected by recount, quits school board, is moving to Texas
Oakland’s Loren Taylor seeks recount observers
RECOUNT
SAN LEANDRO
—NO TATE YOU—There’s a new twist in the increasingly bizarre aftermath of last November’s election in the East Bay and the potential recount of ranked choice voting races on the horizon.
—The candidate who lost San Leandro’s city council race by a scant 32 votes, and who could be a beneficiary of the recount, resigned from her seat on the San Leandro school board on Tuesday and announced she’s moving to Texas.
—Monique Tate first made the announcement to the San Leandro Board of Trustees during a closed session meeting on Tuesday night. Later, Tate addressed the public and added she is relocating to San Antonio, Tex.
—“I don’t have a date yet, but we bought a house there and our house [in San Leandro] closes this month,” Tate said. She plans to move sometime between the end of February or early March.
—“I’ve enjoyed my time being part of the board and, as I stated in close session, you guys are like family to me. You helped me grow in my community work and advocacy. I will always remember and cherish the moments and the relationships built in the community.”
—Tate’s departure will certainly lead the San Leandro school board to begin the appointment process for the Area 1 seat. Tate was appointed to the school board in 2015, and elected to full four-year terms in 2016 and 2020.
—Although the Alameda County Board of Supervisor approved a recount of ranked choice voting races in Oakland and San Leandro this week, it remains unclear when the counting will begin and whether it is legal.
—A reversal in this race, similar to what occurred in Oakland’s school board race, is believed by many to be improbable.
—However, a recount in last November’s San Leandro City Council race in District would not involve ranked choice tabulations because it was a two-candidate contest. Xouhoa Bowen defeated Tate by 32 votes. A total of 18,714 votes were cast in the race.
—In this case, any change in the results would have to come via the vote-counting process. With just a 32-vote difference, tabulations errors and contested ballots would have to become factors.
—But now, does it matter? Tate is moving and Bowen has been sworn-in and already participated in two city council meetings.
—WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON HERE?—A new wrinkle in the argument that our system of local governance benefits wealthy candidates and well-off retirees is emerging with Alameda County’s controversial election.
—It takes money to hire lawyers to contest an election in which it turns out you actually won, as Mike Hutchinson in Oakland’s District 4 school board race can attest.
—As we’re seeing with Monique Tate in San Leandro, who may have had the best (albeit very slim) chance of finding a positive outcome from a recount, contesting ballots requires expertise that doesn’t come cheap.
—What if it turns out, like Hutchinson, that Tate won the council race? Then there’s additional legal costs to overturn the result certified in early December by the registrar of voters.
OAKLAND
—CALL FOR RECOUNT OBSERVERS—Even if the chances are remote that a recount changes Oakland’s close mayoral contest, candidate Loren Taylor sent out an email to his supporters on Wednesday seeking volunteers to observe the recount, if and when it occurs.
—“Election experts say that it is unlikely that the final result of the mayoral race will be affected by the manual recount; yet we will still prepare for any outcome of the recount,” Taylor wrote.
—Taylor received the most first-place votes in Oakland’s mayoral election, but lost the race to Sheng Thao after nine rounds of ranked choice tabulations. The final margin of victory was 677 votes.
—After it was discovered on Dec. 23 that a setting in the county’s ranked choice voting algorithm was incorrect, a retabulation of the vote did not change the outcome of the mayor’s race, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis.
—Changes need to be made to how elections are run in Alameda County, Taylor said, without any specifics. “Without question, in the wake of this error, we should also be taking a look at anything we can do to make both voting and vote counting simpler for Oaklanders and residents across Alameda County.”
