Meanwhile, in San Mateo County, Assistant Chief Elections Officer Jim Irizarry is increasing the daily rate that Padilla will have to pay for the recount from $5,000 to $12,000 — Padilla has been paying $12,000 a day in Santa Clara County where a majority of the votes are being counted.

“The increase is necessary to reimburse the county for the actual daily costs of the recount that have been incurred starting Monday, April 15, 2024,” Irizarry wrote in an email to Padilla’s attorney that was obtained by The San Jose Mercury News. “The increase in the daily deposit is primarily due to the change from a manual to a machine recount and the retrieval of individual ballots by precincts, increasing our labor and overhead costs.”

Both counties previously estimated that a manual recount would be more costly than a machine recount. Padilla originally requested a manual recount before amending his request for the cheaper machine recount.

In Irizarry’s email, which was sent Wednesday night, he said Padilla had until 5 p.m. on Thursday to pay the outstanding $28,000 difference between the old and new fee.

Padilla confirmed that the payment would be made and called the change “a bait-and-switch.”

“So even though San Mateo County only has 20% of the votes in the district, they are now charging us the same amount of money as Santa Clara County, which has 80% of the votes,” Padilla wrote in an email. “How does this make sense?”

Padilla also slammed Low and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna over their views on the recount. Last week, Low’s lawyers tried to halt the recount altogether, alleging that certain recount deadlines were missed.

In an April 9 tweet, Khanna called the recount a “crass political ploy” and said that “a candidate wanting to overturn the will of the voters is undemocratic,” referencing the political connections between Liccardo and Padilla.

“What’s even sadder is that Evan Low and Ro Khanna are up to their necks in this Trumpian travesty to exclude legal ballots,” Padilla said. “Shame!”

In rebuttal, Low campaign spokesperson Clay Volino said in a statement that “Sam Liccardo’s lackey Jonathan Padilla has the facts wrong.”

“He’s trying to avoid answering for the dark money Super PAC that is funding this expensive recount on Sam Liccardo’s behalf,” Volino said. “If Padilla really cared about protecting democracy, he would disclose his secret donors so we know who Sam could be beholden to.”

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