Votes Unchanged : Simi School Bond Issue Loses Again in Ballot Recount

A vote recount has confirmed the defeat of a Simi Valley school bond measure, school officials announced Friday.

The recount by Ventura County election officials showed that Measure B, which had to be approved by more than two-thirds of the voters to pass, garnered 66.1%, or 6,929 votes, in the March 7 special election.

If approved, the measure would have provided $8 million to build gymnasiums and an auditorium.

“It didn’t change a single vote,” Chet Howe, a spokesman for the Simi Valley Unified School District, said of the recount. “But the election was so close--we only needed 59 more votes to win--that we felt we owed it to the 66% who voted for it to double-check the outcome.”

The district spent about $2,000 for the recount, including the salary of a San Francisco attorney who specializes in election law.

Howe said officials are disappointed with the defeat of Measure B. But he noted that a second school bond measure, Measure A, won handily.

Measure A, which will provide $35 million to upgrade the district’s 27 schools, passed last week with 70.5%, or 7,410 votes.

Simi Valley school officials campaigned aggressively for both bond measures.

A citizens committee supporting the measures recruited more than 200 volunteers, and raised more than $6,000 to hire a political consultant and pay for other campaign expenses.

Howe said officials will decide later this month whether to put the $8-million bond measure on the November ballot.