Recounts Confirm Results in Inglewood

A group of Inglewood City Council candidates hunkered down for hours Wednesday with their entourages, election officials and a pair of police officers for a hand recount in two controversial races that did not change the outcome of either contest.

Eloy Morales Jr., a field deputy to Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood), won the District 3 race by 41 votes over Lennox School Board President Trini Jimenez. The recount added three votes to Jimenez’s tally for a total of 573 and bestowed one additional vote on Morales, who received 614.

In the District 4 contest, community activist Mike Stevens and labor leader Ralph Franklin again garnered more votes than Councilwoman Lorraine Johnson, and will meet in a June 3 runoff. Eight more votes tallied during Wednesday’s recount brought Stevens’ total to 567 votes, Franklin’s to 550 and Johnson’s to 543.

Johnson said she filed papers Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court challenging Stevens’ residency because she claims he does not live in District 4 -- a point Stevens disputes.

Jimenez said he plans to use information he obtained from absentee ballots and other election documents to check with voters in one precinct where Morales garnered a large number of votes. “We’re going to leave no stone unturned,” he said.

A machine recount for seat 4 of the Inglewood Unified School District Board of Education reconfirmed Los Angeles school district administrator Willie F. Crittendon and perennial candidate Mildred McNair as the top two vote-getters in the five-way race. They will face each other in a runoff.