Recount deadline looms in Senate nail-biter

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Former Assemblyman Juan Vargas is clinging to a 22-vote lead over Assemblywoman Mary Salas in this year’s closest legislative primary election. And the clock is quickly running out for Salas to demand a recount.

According to Shannan Velayas, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, 5 p.m. is the deadline to request a recount. By Friday,the Secretary of State must file a statement of the vote, compiled from each county’s official tally.

Recounts need not be district-wide. The 40th Senate District includes all of Imperial and parts of San Diego and Riverside counties. State election law states a recount “recount may be conducted within any or all of the affected counties.”

Elections officials in Riverside County and San Diego County say they have not received any recount requests. Imperial county elections officials were not reachable and did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Vargas received more than $2 million in help from tort reform and other business groups. Salas was backed by a number of labor unions and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

--Anthony York in Sacramento