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In Ongoing LA 5th District Ballot Count, More Problems Arise
Zach Behrens/LAist
Zach Behrens/LAist
As it stands right now, former West Hollywood Councilman and Assemblyman Paul Koretz leads lawyer and community organizer David Vahedi by a close 551 votes. Provisional and vote-by-mail ballots still need to be counted, but some problems have surfaced, earlier examined by the LA Times and highlighted by a Vahedi camp e-mail this weekend:
While this issue was thought to be limited, it has now expanded to at least 6 precincts and continues to grow. The County has been forthcoming and admitted they have never seen this mistake occur before, so we are in uncharted territory. The County has segregated mailed in ballots from these precincts and ones dropped off at the precincts. As such, these were not counted today. Unfortunately, these ballots are from our strongest precincts; some with 70% of the poll vote for us.
There are approximately 3500 more ballots to count on Tuesday, with additional ballots still to be prepared for counting.
In addition, we have been contacted by voters concerning the following problems on Tuesday: 1. They went to their normal polling place and were told they were not on the voting roll and were not offered a provisional ballot.
2. 16 precincts were required to vote by mail only and the voters that tried to find a poll to vote at were turned away.
3. Polling places that voters voted in March 3rd Primary did not have voting booths voter guides with the 5th District race on it when voting provisionally.
4. Precincts were changed without notification.
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