Borucki survives the count

CITY HALL — The city’s election season came to an end Friday after officials counted more than 2,000 provisional and absentee ballots, showing no significant changes from the April 7 results.

The race for city treasurer was the only election that could have been affected by the previously uncounted ballots, election officials said, with incumbent Ron Borucki’s lead over challenger Rafi Manoukian at only 823 votes before the final tabulations.

Borucki’s lead was cut almost in half, to 446 votes when the final tally was announced, but Manoukian, a former mayor, ultimately fell short of unseating the incumbent.

“It’s a great victory for the city and for the people of Glendale,” Borucki said after receiving congratulations from a handful of supporters on hand to observe the final tally. “I think definitely they appreciated that experience and quality count in the city treasurer’s office.”

Borucki, who was appointed to the city treasurer position in 2003 and was subsequently elected after running unopposed in 2005, admitted that he did not campaign well, a factor that made the race tight.

“We were always cautiously optimistic, but the last couple of days, I have to admit, I was on pins and needles,” he said.

Manoukian spent more than seven times as much as Borucki, $24,125 to $3,336, according to campaign disclosure forms filed before the election.

Manoukian campaigned on the promise of serving as a treasurer who was “a representative of the community as opposed to a representative of the city management.”

His message resonated with 10,449 voters, but it was not enough to beat Borucki’s 10,895 supporters.

The close results were expected, Councilman Frank Quintero said, because of the nature of the candidates participating.

“You had a politician running against a treasurer with very little political experience,” he said.

The count for the 2,225 provisional and absentee ballots tallied was delayed by more than an hour as officials waited for a faxed certification of all ballots from the Los Angeles county clerk’s office, City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian said.

The 2,225 ballots included some cast at polling places where the voters were not listed on rosters, and others were turned in after the city’s 2 p.m. deadline for inclusion in the April 7 tally, although they were all received by 8 that night, which was the deadline for turning all ballots in.

The signature on each ballot had to be confirmed with the signatures that appeared on voter registration materials before they could be counted, Kassakhian said.

Some votes did not meet qualification requirements and were not counted, although that number was not available Friday, he said.

 ZAIN SHAUK covers education. He may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at zain.shauk@latimes.com.