Scott James/The Bay Citizen

Signs promote candidates on a Vallejo street corner

With thousands of ballots left to be counted, Vallejo’s mayoral election has become a matter of dispute.

Unofficial results have incumbent Mayor Osby Davis ahead with 7,390 votes (51.6 percent) to challenger Joanne Schivley’s 6,804 votes (47.5 percent).

That’s a lead of 586 votes, but Solano County election officials said more than 11,000 vote-by-mail, provisional and other ballots have yet to tallied countywide.

It is unclear how many of these are Vallejo ballots, but since the mayor’s race was one of the hotly contested races in the county, thousands of ballots are likely to come into play.

Additionally, questions are emerging as to whether everyone who wanted to vote was able to. Residents of a 14-story senior citizen complex near Vallejo's City Hall, where they have voted in the past, were reportedly told when they arrived Tuesday that their polling place had been relocated more than a mile away for this election.

Some demanded to vote at City Hall anyway, asking for a provisional ballot. But those quickly ran out.

Lindsey McWilliams, assistant registrar of voters, confirmed he had heard about the incident. McWilliams said polling places were each allotted only 25 provisional ballots. The complex includes 155 senior households. It’s not known how many of the residents tried to vote and were turned away.

McWilliams said poll workers should have allowed all the seniors to vote on the spot, using what is known as a “live ballot,” which would be verified later. “We never turn anyone away,” he said — that is, assuming poll workers “were doing what they were supposed to be doing.”

When asked why the polling place was moved away from the residence of the seniors, many of whom have limited mobility, McWilliams said, “Polling places change with every election.”

The votes from the senior citizen complex could be key in a close race. Schivley, 79, a longtime City Council member, believes many of the residents supported her candidacy.

Scott James/The Bay Citizen

Joanne Schivley, center

“I feel this is election fraud, to say the least,” Schivley said in an interview. She said she would wait for the final vote results before determining what action to take, but when asked whether she was prepared to contest the election, she said, “Absolutely.”

This is not the first time that voting in Vallejo’s mayoral race has become the focus of controversy. In 2007, Davis won by just two votes after a recount; his opponent's vote tally decreased by seven between the first and second counts. Despite public outcry over the results, no wrongdoing was proven. Still, many Vallejo residents and officials have questioned the validity of Davis’ tenure ever since.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding this year’s election, Davis has already declared victory.

"We are victorious, as far as I'm concerned, and we're going to move on with doing the business of the city — bringing it back together," Davis told the local newspaper, the Vallejo Times-Herald. "I'm not hesitant at all. The numbers say what they say."

He’s not alone in claiming a win. Thursday's San Francisco Chronicle has also declared Davis the victor. Initially, so did the Times-Herald, which endorsed Davis. (Schivley has accused the paper of bias in the race.) On Thursday, however, the Times-Herald changed its tone, reporting that the election is not yet over.

The contents of the 11,000 uncounted ballots will be made public Friday afternoon. The official election results are not expected to be certified until Nov. 23, according to McWilliams.