Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : ELECTIONS / SANTA CLARITA CITY COUNCIL : Klajik’s Manager Requests a Recount

The campaign manager for defeated council candidate Jill Klajic on Wednesday requested a recount of election results that had Klajic losing by a mere 16 votes.

Skip Newhall said he asked for a second vote count because Klajic’s supporters “would always wonder ‘what if?’ ”

Klajic, 47, conceded that the recount may turn out to be “an act of futility.”

The exact time of the recount has not been determined, but it must be held within seven days of the request, said Santa Clarita City Clerk Donna Grindey.

Whoever requests a recount is charged for the staff time and supplies used, making a hand count much more expensive than simply running ballots through the computer, as is done on election night.

A recount of the 10,426 ballots is projected to take four hours and cost $500 if done via computer, or take five days and cost about $6,840 if counted by hand, Grindey said.

Newhall said he’d rather have the recount done by hand, but the cost is prohibitive. About $350 to $400 in donations have been pledged by contributors to help cover the expense, he said.

This is the first recount in the history of Santa Clarita, which became a city in December, 1987.

H. Clyde Smyth, who at last count had edged Klajic by 3,804 votes to 3,788, was sworn in Tuesday night along with returning incumbents Jo Anne Darcy and Carl Boyer.

Smyth, 62, said he isn’t against a recount. He retired from the William S. Hart Union High School District in 1992 after more than 16 years as superintendent.