Santa Ana Council Candidate Seeks Recount : Election: Attorney for Alberta Christy files petition for new tabulation but does not indicate what might have prompted the request. She lost by 332 votes.

A supporter of Alberta Christy--who lost her bid for the Santa Ana City Council by 332 votes after holding an election night lead--has filed a petition for a recount with the Orange County registrar of voters.

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Christy, a banker and neighborhood activist who has made three failed bids for a council seat, declined to discuss the petition, which was filed Monday to meet the registrar’s deadline.

“We’re not to comment on that according to our attorney,” Christy said Tuesday.

Attorney Darryl R. Wold, who said he is advising Christy for free, said the petition was filed to keep her options open, but no one has paid for a recount yet.

Christy lost to Tony Espinoza, who was sworn into office Tuesday at a city council installation ceremony. Espinoza said he found the news of the recount petition discouraging.

“I wasn’t really surprised, but I can’t say that I was not disappointed. All the ballots were in and the elections were over. I was just prepared to go forward now,” said Espinoza, a probation counselor and city planning commissioner.

Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney estimated that a recount could cost $5,000 to $7,000 and said he will meet with the Christy campaign soon to determine the best way to handle the petition.

“The margin of difference is very large,” Tanney said. “It would be very unusual for an election to turn around, with this number of votes separating the candidates, based on a recount.”

The recount petition was filed by Brad White, a voter, who listed no address but named Wold as his contact. White and Wold have until Thursday to request the recount because the registrar’s office is closed Friday, said Bev Warner, the registrar’s election section supervisor.

Although they have not yet paid for the recount, Warner said they asked that absentee ballots be looked at first.

“They want to examine the return envelopes first and then the ballots,” she said.

White filed the petition on Christy’s behalf because the race “was real close and several supporters asked her to seek a recount,” Wold said.

“Mrs. Christy wanted to keep her options open while she considered what course of action she can take,” he said. “She has not made a final decision to go ahead with it, but (Monday) was the final day for filing.”

Espinoza had trailed Christy by 150 votes after election night. But he gained a solid lead after absentee ballots were tallied. In the final vote count--after provisional ballots also were tallied--he led Christy by 332 votes.

“My only guess is that because she was leading for that week, maybe she just felt as though she had won, and this is maybe her way of trying to regain that. I really can’t begin to speculate,” he said.

Espinoza said he is confident he would prevail if Christy pursues a recount. “The county registrar did a good job in counting, and I don’t think the outcome is going to change,” he said.

Wold said Christy supporters wanted to examine the election materials for her race, and were told that the only procedure available that would grant them access to voting materials was a recount.

Wold declined to elaborate as to what they might be looking for in the election materials.

“I don’t want to speculate or make allegations without having some facts,” he said.

Wold has worked as legal counsel to the Republican Party of Orange County and said he knows Christy--an active Republican--from party events. He said she sought him out because his firm specializes in election law. Wold also has represented Sheriff Brad Gates, the sheriff’s advisory council and former county Supervisor Don R. Roth.

Councilman Ted R. Moreno, who supported Espinoza for the nonpartisan seat, derided the petition as party politicking.

“It has no bite to it. . . . The Republicans won half the nation and they are complaining about one City Council seat in Santa Ana,” he said.

Times staff writer Gebe Martinez contributed to this story.