Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : H. Clyde Smyth Still Comes Out on Top After Recount : Election: In race for third council seat, Jill Klajic is defeated by 15 votes in tally requested by her campaign manager.

H. Clyde Smyth has won a seat on the City Council for the third time in two weeks, edging out Jill Klajic by 15 votes in a recount Tuesday.

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Klajic’s campaign manager, Skip Newhall, requested another electronic tally of the ballot last week when the more than 10,400 ballots turned in to Santa Clarita precincts April 12 showed Smyth edging the incumbent for the third seat by 16 votes.

“I’m certainly satisfied by the count,” said Newhall, who peppered election workers with questions about the tallying process during the two-hour recount Tuesday morning. “One vote is certainly within the bounds of error.”

This is the third time that Smyth, former superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, appeared as the winner for the election’s third seat behind incumbents Jo Anne Darcy and Carl Boyer.

Election night results showed him with an eight-vote lead, but 174 absentee and provisional votes were still uncounted. When those were counted 36 hours later, Smyth had doubled the margin to 16.

Newhall said he asked for the recount because Klajic’s supporters otherwise “would always wonder ‘what if?’ ”

Smyth edged Klajic by 3,807 to 3,792 votes, according to the recount. Most candidates’ vote totals shifted slightly in the new tally, but not enough to alter the outcome.

“I’m surprised it changed at all,” said Klajic, who had been skeptical about winning back the third seat with the recount.

Klajic, 47, said she will remain active in Santa Clarita causes such as battling a proposed dump in Elsmere Canyon. She’s undecided about running for office in 1996, saying she won’t rule out the possibility.

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

“I’m glad I can put this to bed, put this away and go back to normal,” City Clerk Donna Grindey said.

Smyth expressed similar sentiments, but restated his comments of the past two weeks that he supports the democratic process and therefore the recount procedure.

“I have no animosity,” said Smyth, 62. “How could you be upset at anyone that exercises their rights as a citizen?”

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

Tuesday’s electronic recount took about two hours and will cost $276.32--about half the time and cost originally estimated, Grindey said. Recounting by hand was projected to take five days and would have cost $6,840.

Newhall said that $145 in donations have come in for the recount and that $130 remains in Klajic’s campaign account.