Error At Registrar's Office Leads To New Winner In School Board Race

OAKLAND, CA — An error in the system that tallies votes for the Nov. 8 election means the results in the race for the District 4 seat on the Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors has a new winner.

According to a news release issued by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office, the registrar noticed the tally system was not configured properly for the November 2022 General Election. Upon the discovery, the registrar's office worked with its vendor to figure out the source of the issue and to resolve it.

"After reviewing the election data and applying the correct configuration, the ROV learned that only one outcome was affected: Oakland School Director, District 4, for the Oakland Unified School District," the news release said.

Incumbent Mike Hutchinson is now claiming victory over Nick Resnick, Hutchinson said in a Facebook post Wednesday.

"Guess what I just found out....... I won the election!!!!!" Hutchinson wrote.

According to Bay City News, the system failed to give candidates a first-choice vote when the voter selected a second choice for an office but not a first choice. If the voter selected a third choice, that was supposed to become their second choice for an office. Because of the misconfiguration, votes were not advanced in that way.

"No vote was registered for those ballots in the first round of counting because those voters did not identify a valid candidate in a particular rank on the ballot," the news release said.

Officials at the county registrar's office did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the issue.

No other outcome in the election will change, according to the registrar's office.

"The ROV has notified the City of Oakland, Oakland Unified School District, School Director District 4 candidates, and the Secretary of State," the news release said, adding that the registrar is "currently working with its vendor to provide safeguards so that this does not happen in future elections."

Bay City News contributed to this story.