Foy says he has won race for board

Insurance broker Peter Foy declared victory Friday in his bid for an open seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors -- although elections officials continue to count ballots 11 days after the election.

Foy said his 734-vote lead is too large for rival Jim Dantona to overcome in the 4th District race with only 3,000 ballots left to be tallied.

Of those, about 2,000 are absentee ballots, and 1,000 are so-called provisional ballots cast Nov. 7 by voters whose names could not be found on polling place lists.

“We are claiming victory,” Foy said. “We’ve had five absentee runs now, and on every one we have gone up. Dantona would have to get almost 100% of the provisionals to make a difference, and it just doesn’t make statistical sense.”

But Dantona, a political strategist, said he isn’t ready to concede that Foy has won the seat representing residents of Simi Valley, Moorpark and outlying communities. Dantona acknowledged he has a “mountain to climb” but said he owes it to his supporters to wait until all votes have been counted.

“I’m going to take it to the last pitch,” said the former professional second baseman. “I’m a Cubs fan. You don’t give up until the third out in the ninth inning.”

A crush of last-minute absentee ballots, combined with insufficient staff to count them, has delayed final counts in several tight Ventura County races. City council seats in Port Hueneme and Ojai were still uncertain Friday, according to unofficial vote totals.

Ventura County supervisors have scheduled a Tuesday session to discuss the delayed counts and possible corrections. County Clerk Philip Schmit this week advised the board that he needs more room to count the ballots and suggested that the county include return postage on absentee envelopes so that voters will turn them in earlier.

“Just because we’ve always done it one way doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do,” he told supervisors.

Nearly half of the 225,000 county residents who cast votes in the Nov. 7 general election did so by absentee ballot, Schmit said.

By election night, only about 25,000 of those ballots had been counted.

Elections Chief Gene Browning hired extra staff to help count the mail-in ballots. He estimated Friday that it would take at least another week to go over the 9,000 absentee and 5,200 provisional ballots that remain uncounted countywide.

Of those, about 2,000 are absentee ballots and 1,000 are provisional votes from the 4th District’s borders, Browning said.

“Officially, it’s not over until we certify the vote on Dec. 5,” he said.

Dantona, 58, said the long wait has been frustrating. Over a 30-year career in politics, he has observed elections in counties up and down California, and they usually proceed much quicker, he said.

“The bottom line is there never should have been this kind of delay,” Dantona said. “I think quite honestly that [Schmit] didn’t have enough people prepared to count the vote.”

Schmit was out of the office Friday and couldn’t be reached for comment. But several supervisors said they, too, are concerned about the delay in getting results.

Board members are expected to discuss whether Schmit’s operation should be moved to a larger space. They will also talk about ballot size, increased training for polling station volunteers and whether to provide return postage on absentee ballots.

“If space is a problem, we need to ensure we don’t have the same problem in the next election,” said Board Chairwoman Linda Parks.

The next election will be the June 2008 presidential primary, followed by the general election in November.

With an open presidential contest, turnout could be far higher than the 56% who voted this month, officials say.

“We need to get on top of the problems quickly to correct and improve them before we get to that presidential primary,” said Supervisor Kathy Long.

Ventura County replaced its punch-lever system with an ink-marked ballot that many voters found large and unwieldy. The old system worked fine, Browning said, but the county was required to replace it after the hanging-chad fiasco in the 2000 presidential race prompted changes in election law.

The new $6-million ink-on-paper system was paid for with state and federal grants, he said.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com