Legal Contest Filed in Tight Chula Vista City Council Race

A legal statement of election contest claims 15 invalid votes should have been counted in the very close Chula Vista City Council race.

The lawsuit, filed Friday by Aurora Clark, says Registrar of Voters Michael Vu failed to count contested ballots in the race for city council Seat 1, which John McCann won by just two votes over Steve Padilla.

The statement of election contest calls for a judge to compel the registrar to count the ballots, an action that could upend the election's result.

Clark says 15 mail-in and provisional votes were declared invalid because there was a problem with the addresses or signatures on them.

According to the court document, the lack of address on a mailed-in envelope does not affect the vote’s validity as long as the signature compares with the signature on file. The signatures on ten of the contested provisional ballots matched voting records, Clark says.

In two other cases, people not registered to vote by mail showed up at a polling place and turned in mail-in ballots. The legal statement says the votes should count because poll workers should have given them a regular ballot.

One mail-in vote was deemed invalid because registrar employees determined the signature did not match the one on record – something Clark contests. And in the final case, the registrar’s office says the person voted twice.

“The errors and conduct described above have unlawfully and unconstitutionally disenfranchised eligible voters in the City of Chula Vista,” the lawsuit states, “and have denied them their fundamental right to vote and their rights to due process and the equal protection of the laws.”

It is not clear if the ballots will change the outcome of the race to help Steve Padilla.

Defendants John McCann and Michael Vu have 30 days to respond to the legal claim.

The Seat 1 race ended in a recount in December, but after a week in, Padilla suspended the recount and conceded to McCann.

Chula Vista is no stranger to tight races. In 2010, U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas won the 40th state Senate District seat by just 22 votes.