Malibu Growth Controls Win Approval in Recount

In a close vote that mimicked the presidential election until the end--hanging chads and all--Los Angeles County’s closest Nov. 7 election was finally decided Wednesday.

A recount of Malibu’s municipal ballot Measure P concluded that the growth-control initiative won, 3,193 votes to 3,185.

For 22 days after the election, Measure P had been locked in an exact tie: 3,137 votes for and 3,137 votes against. The deadlock was finally broken in late November when county elections officials tallied provisional ballots and determined that the slow-growth measure had passed by six votes, 3,178-3,172.

The additional votes were discovered Wednesday in a hand count. It was determined that 28 ballots with hanging chads had not been originally counted by automated vote-tally machines’ light sensors, said Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the county Registrar-Recorder’s office.

“If a chad is hanging, we don’t know if it went through open or closed” when it originally passed through the machine on election night, she said. So a hand count was needed to determine the votes.

A controversial issue in Malibu, Measure P--called the “Right to Vote on Development Initiative”--would allow Malibu residents to vote whether new developments of more than 25,000 square feet should be built. Wednesday’s recount drew observers from the Sierra Club, which endorsed the measure, and lawyers from the Malibu Bay Co. development firm, which opposed it.

County officials announced the recount results about five minutes before Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign concession speech was delivered at 6 p.m.

Opponents of Measure P have said they may challenge its legality.