Activist Puts Up Money for Recount of City Council Ballots : Politics: A friend of George Papadakis, who lost by 25 votes, says the count might have been tainted. City officials deny any irregularities.

Signal Hill officials plan a recount Monday of ballots cast in the City Council election, at the request of a resident who will foot the bill.

Community activist Patricia Moynihan said the election might have been tainted by a breakdown in mechanical equipment and “arbitrary” rejection of absentee ballots.

In a letter to Deputy City Clerk Nancy Shepard, Moynihan said she requested the recount on behalf of candidate George Papadakis, who lost in his bid for one of three open council seats during the April 14 election. Papadakis trailed Councilman Richard Ceccia, the only incumbent to win reelection, by 25 votes.

“I have concerns about whether it was all that accurate or not,” Moynihan said.

City Clerk Kris C. Beard said he takes “strong exception” to Moynihan’s assessment that absentee ballots were arbitrarily rejected. “Everything was done according to the law,” he said.

A maximum of five absentee votes were rejected, most of them because the envelopes were not signed, Shepard said.

City officials also denied that a breakdown in equipment that automatically feeds ballots into a vote counter might have affected the outcome of the election. The ballots were hand-fed into the machine but counted automatically, officials said.

The recount will cost Moynihan at least $1,200, Beard said. Moynihan, a friend and supporter of Papadakis, said she is willing to pick up the tab. “It isn’t going to hurt to have a recount,” she said.

But Ceccia, who was elected mayor last week, called it “a waste of staff time.” In Signal Hill, where the population totals 8,371 residents, 25 votes “is still a pretty large difference,” he said.