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This year’s city council race in Blue Lake is looking quite likely to wind up with an exact tie for third place with three available seats in what has been a contentious election. It’s the kind of scenario political wonks keep tucked in their back pockets to counter the claim, “My one vote won’t matter.”

Per the latest tally, released by the county elections office on Wednesday, here is the vote count for each of the seven candidates in the race:

• Michelle Lewis-Lusso: 285
• John Sawatzky: 250
• Adelene Jones*: 245
• Kat Napier: 245
• Christopher Guy Firor*: 233
• Christopher B. Edgar*: 210
• Verda Winona N. Pitts: 148

*incumbents

As you can see, Jones, the incumbent councilmember and mayor, is tied with challenger Kat Napier.

With more than 65,000 ballots cast countywide, just 446 remain to be processed, according to Humboldt County Clerk/Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan P. Cervantes. That includes 53 provisional ballots and 393 vote-by-mail ballots, most of which arrived without a signature or with a signature that didn’t match the one on file. Cervantes said those voters have been contacted to ensure they have every opportunity to get their votes counted.

But it might not matter for Blue Lake. Only about 1 percent of votes countywide were cast by residents of that city (pop. 1,172), so there’s probably just a handful, if any, Blue Lake ballots left to be counted. Even if there are more than that, it might not untie the race.

Consider: There were more than 2,000 ballots counted between the third and fourth post-election reports. Twelve of those came from Blue Lake voters. After the third report, Jones and Napier were tied at 243 votes apiece. With the fourth they secured two more votes apiece and thus remain deadlocked.

So what next? Cervantes explained that if a tie remains in place after all ballots are counted and the official results are finalized, California Elections Code 15651 outlines the procedures for deciding the race. Unless the City of Blue Lake adopted a provision prior to the election to resolve ties through a special runoff election, the race will be decided via a random selection process — drawing straws, in other words.

Election code calls this process as “determination by lot,” but it amounts to the same thing: a random selection. In this case, the Blue Lake city clerk, as the elections official for the city council race, would oversee the procedure. 

Theoretically, there could also be a recount, though Cervantes said that a tie does not automatically trigger one. Any registered vote can request a recount after the official results are certified, which is expected to occur by December 3. To ask for a recount, the voter must submit a written request by 5 p.m. on the fifth day following certification, per California Elections Code 15620-15624.

However, the cost of the recount must be paid by the person who requests it. “They are required to cover the first day’s recount costs upfront, and payment is repeated for each additional day the recount continues,” Cervantes explained in an email to the Outpost. “Costs are calculated based on the actual expenses incurred by the county.”

So there you have it. For you Blue Lake residents who elected not to cast a ballot this time around, feel free to post your confession in the comment section below.