The Brian M. Danzl campaign bet $25,000 that a recount would give the longtime community volunteer a seat on the Rancho Cordova City Council.
On Thursday, Danzl and his supporters lost the bet.
Sacramento elections officials, who collected the money up front to conduct the painstaking work this week, announced the results:
Instead of a three-vote loss to candidate Donald Terry in the Nov. 6 election, the recount found Danzl lost by eight.
County Registrar Jill LaVine said the victorious Terry received 7,789 votes in the recount and Danzl received 7,781.
While the recount produced a difference in the vote totals, it didn't affect the outcome of the election.
"I do not have to recertify the election," LaVine said. "The winner is still the winner."
In all, there were four candidates seeking three council seats.
As it happens, Terry was sworn into office Dec. 3, before the recount.
Also sworn in were the top two vote-getters in the City Council race: Councilmen David Sander and Robert McGarvey.
The recount showed Sander received 12,872 votes and McGarvey received 10,487 votes.
Danzl's consultant, Tab Berg, told The Bee that his client's campaign paid for the recount. Because the recount was completed at 1 p.m., elections officials said they would refund some of the $25,000.
Berg added that Danzl is not sorry he spent the money.
"Everyone involved believes the recount was the right and prudent course with such a narrow election – one one-hundredth of 1 percent," Berg said.
Late Thursday, Terry said he always believed the county was careful with the results.
"We're thrilled," Terry said, adding, "I wish Brian Danzl the best."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Loretta Kalb
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.