The race for a spot on the Desert Hot Springs City Council was not only exciting, but it came to a deadlock this weekend as vote counting came to a close.
Daniel Pitts challenged Councilman Roger V. Nuñez for the District 2 seat. And according to the final vote counts released Saturday evening, both men had 1,190 votes.
Previously, they had traded narrow leads, with Pitts leading on election night and Nuñez grabbing a small advantage later in the count.
Roger Nuñez, left, and Daniel Pitts are running for the Desert Hot Springs City Council District 2 seat.
The next set of results would be released on Monday at 6pm
How many votes remain to be counted?
The Riverside County Registrar of Voters did not break down the number of outstanding votes by city, but said fewer than 12,000 mail-in ballots remained to be counted countywide. Also a factor are the 34,900 uncounted conditional voter registration ballots cast by people who registered at the polls or shortly before Election Day and whose eligibility must be verified before their votes are counted.
Finally, an unspecified number of ballots were rejected due to a signature mismatch or other reason. Such voters have the legal right to try to fix the problem before December 1 – known as “curing” a ballot – and have their vote counted.
Together, the 46,900 known ballots would comprise only a small portion of the Nuñez-Pitts race. Desert Hot Springs has a population of approximately 33,000, just over 1% of the county population. And only people from one of the city’s four municipal districts are eligible to vote in this race. Do the math, and that suggests there might be 150 votes left for Pitts or Nuñez.
What happens if there is a tie?
If all the votes are counted and the two men are still tied, it appears state law will determine what happens next.
Any candidate – in fact any voter – can request a recount in any election, for which they must pay. If that happens and the votes are still tied, under California election law, the tie is broken by many – literally or symbolically, pulling a name out of a hat.
Cities can pass a law saying a tie is broken by a special runoff election, but a review of the city code and charter shows Desert Hot Springs has no such law.
The issue arose over a weekend when government offices were closed so officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the method of a possible tiebreaker, or to determine another provision of law instead.
Who are Nuñez and Pitts?
Voters elected Nuñez, who has lived in Desert Hot Springs for about seven years, to his first term on the council in 2020. He is a social worker with Children’s Services of Riverside County. He was a planning commissioner in Coachella when he lived in that city. If re-elected, he said he wants to continue working on building a relationship between the city and Spanish speakers, as well as park funding and youth programs.
Pitts has previously conducted code enforcement for cities such as Artesia, La Palma and Rancho Palos Verdes. He has lived in Desert Hot Springs since 2015 and is a holistic physician and reflexologist. He previously served as a board member of the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce and as president of the nonprofit DiversityDHS.
He has said he would like to work on the city’s finances, economic development, public safety and homelessness if he takes office.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Election results: Race tied for Desert Hot Springs City Council
