The City of Cupertino announced on Friday, Dec. 21 that the City Council election results have been confirmed by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
The outcome of the Nov. 6 election is unchanged with Darcy Paul in first place, Liang Chao in second, and Jon Willey in third. A recount was conducted by the Registrar of Voters to determine if Willey or incumbent Councilmember Savita Vaidhyanathan had won the third council seat. Only 45 votes separated the two candidates, according to official results before the recount.
According to the Registrar, recounts are triggered when the margin of victory is either less than .25 percent of the ballots cast, or less than 25 votes.
Cupertino Today reached out to the Registrar last week and learned that each of the 22,115 Cupertino ballots cast were physically recounted across the City Council race. The recount involved a hand-tally of 52,616 votes cast, after which tally sheets were created and compared with machine results.
The manual recount policy was adopted by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors prior to the 2016 elections as a pilot program and made permanent earlier this year, according to the City.
On Dec. 6, Chao and Willey were sworn into office and Paul began his second term. The Council selected Steven Scharf as mayor and Chao as vice mayor.
To read the City’s news release about the confirmed results, click here. To read the Registrar of Voters’ news release about County recount results, click here.