First Election, First City Council, First Recount

An 11-vote margin of victory for the fifth council seat in the new city of Aliso Viejo has prompted a recount and may postpone the first council meeting.

Karl Warkomski won the seat with 1,679 votes, barely defeating Russell Reinhart’s 1,668. A recount was requested on Reinhart’s behalf by Scott Voigts of Lake Forest, who will be charged $409 a day. It could take several days to count the 4,373 ballots a second time.

During the election, incorporation of Aliso Viejo, Orange County’s 34th city, was approved by 93% of the voters.

“I had quite a few people call and say they wanted me to request a recount or saying they would request it for me, being that it was so close . . .,” Reinhart said. “Hopefully, they can get it done quickly.”

Voigts could not be reached for comment.

A panel of precinct officers from outside the county will begin the recount Monday, said Rosalyn Lever, the county’s registrar of voters.

The recount could delay the new council’s start of business. Members had hoped to hold their first meeting Tuesday at the Aliso Viejo Library.

“I’m sort of speechless,” Warkomski said. “I think it’s just going to postpone the inevitable . . . and we have work to do as a City Council.”

It has been 15 years since a recount overturned voting results in Orange County, Lever said. That election involved a write-in candidate in the 40th Congressional District’s primary election. Since then, the county has adopted a new voting system considered more accurate than the previous method, she said.

“I don’t believe anything will change in this election,” Lever said.

Reinhart, a Huntington Beach police officer, became controversial after filing a complaint against a slate of three opponents for alleged campaign misspending, a claim the candidates denied. He also took the Aliso Viejo Community Assn., a homeowners group, to court over its policy regulating political signs--and won.

Opponents fired back, filing a complaint with the district attorney’s office accusing Reinhart of violating state law by posing in uniform in campaign literature photos. Reinhart said the badge and patch in the photo had been altered.