Hurtado asks runner-up to concede in a state Senate race she leads by 13 votes

And the winner in the 16th state Senate District race, after all four counties finished their recounts, remains incumbent Melissa Hurtado.

The Bakersfield Democrat twice claimed victory in the closely contested race against Porterville rancher David Shepard:

▪ On Dec. 10 after Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties had certified their counts to the California Secretary of State;

▪ and, on Jan. 6 after those counties had finished recounting ballots in precincts requested by the Shepard campaign.

Tuesday, the Hurtado campaign asked Shepard to concede a race decided by 13 votes. Hurtado had a 20-vote advantage when she was sworn in for her second four-year term at her Hanford district office on Dec. 9.

Kern County added a handful of overlooked ballots to give Hurtado a 22-vote lead before the recount began on Dec. 19.

The recount has whittled that lead by only nine votes.

“It’s time for David Shepard to admit the race is over,” said Lisa Gasperoni, Hurtado’s campaign. “Shepard’s ongoing attempts to undermine the will of the voters and change the outcome of the election to his personal benefit are becoming more and more desperate.”

The Shepard campaign asked the Kings County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 10 to look into about 150 ballots that the county registrar of voters Lupe Villa ruled invalid. The campaign claims Villa did not properly review the invalid signatures.

The Shepard campaign said Villa took “an average of 49 seconds to determine” if each challenged ballot signature was valid. Those ballots, the campaign said, were rejected “without providing rationale, reasoning or criteria used to reach a decision.”

Villa did not follow the law in rejecting all the signatures, said the Shepard campaign.

The Kings County supervisors appointed Villa to his current position in July 2019.

“The hostilities have started from Kings County initially,” Shepard told the board. “So all I ask is that we take a step back. We look at these ballots one more time.

“We will review this as an opportunity to really quelch any proceedings going forward that could go into pending litigation.”

Shepard won big in Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties. However, the recount produced a net gain of only three votes in Fresno, three in Tulare, two in Kings and one in Kern.

Gasperoni said the Shepard campaign’s request for the Kings County supervisors to overrule its registrar of voters and require vote-by-mail ballots to be reviewed for a third time is wrong.

“Shepard is asking for political favors to help him win, and he’s threatening lawsuits because he didn’t get the results he wanted,” said Gasperoni. “Not only is this desperate, it’s dangerous for our Democracy.”

At the Jan. 10 board meeting, Kings County counsel Diane Freeman was specific on what the supervisors could not undertake as a result of the comments by the Shepard campaign.

“To the extent the comments seek action from the board to alter the election or recount process, I’m here to advise the board has no authority to involve itself in the election process and will not engage in discussion over these matters in open session,” she said.

Any closed session discussion, said Freeman, is solely for the purpose of getting “legal advice concerning the threat of litigation.”

Kern County, which accounts for the biggest chunk of voters in the district, on Tuesday concluded its recount of 150 precincts requested by Hurtado. There were no votes added or subtracted.

The current vote shows Hurtado with 68,461 votes to Shepard’s 68,448.