Indio Mayor Mike Wilson intends to call for an official recount
Indio mayor Mike Wilson says he intends to call for an official recount in the election for Indio City Council District 2.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, Wilson’s opponent, Indio-native Waymond Fermon, is leading the race by 138 votes. Until recently, the race has been back and forth with each update.
Read: Waymond Fermon’s lead continues to grow in Indio City Council race
In a statement, Wilson says he believes “ballot harvesting took place” and that some ballots were “delivered on election day to stuff absentee ballot boxes.”
“Mathematically and statistically those extra ballots just don’t show up in a block after three weeks of counting showed this race would be decided by a very small handful of votes,” Wilson said.
Wilson said his campaign intends to further explore the issue.
The election results haven’t been certified yet. According to Riverside County Registrar, approximately 2,000 vote-by-mail and 36,000 provisional ballots still need to be processed. Wilson said he is aware that some of those votes are in his favor.
Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates. Wilson’s full statement is available below.
“It has become extremely clear in this Campaign a practice of “ballot harvesting” took place and those ballots were delivered on election day to stuff absentee ballot boxes. Though not necessarily illegal, in my opinion and many supporters opinion, it is a very unethical practice that has occured in California this election and is the only State to allow it. These practices, until now, only occured in other countries that regularly have questionable and fraudulent elections.”
“Mathematically and statistically those extra ballots just don’t show up in a block after three weeks of counting showed this race would be decided by a very small handful of votes,” Wilson said.. “Something is amiss here and we intend to explore it”. We are aware of many still uncounted and unprocessed ballots that we know are in our favor as well. Taking this all into consideration, we intend to ask the County Registrar for an official recount.” – Statement from Mike Wilson.
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