The California Secretary of State Office is recommending the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters recount thousands of ballots in San Jose's mayoral race.
Results from the race are extremely close, with roughly 51 percent of the vote going to Councilman Sam Liccardo and 49 percent to Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese.
"They're going to recommend that we do a machine recount on some of the ballots in San Jose," Registrar Shannon Bushey said.
When she receives a letter from Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Bushey will have workers recount roughly 40,000 votes in the mayor's race.
The registrar will also recount the votes for transparency, especially since its IT director quit on the eve of Election Day and the perceived slowness of the vote count.
"We've always been transparent and will continue to be," Bushey said.
The registrar said it will invite the public to witness the recount.
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Cortese earlier in the week conceded to Liccardo. Both candidates found out about the plan from NBC Bay Area.
Cortese said he doesn't think the recount will change the outcome, but added the recount is important to let people know their vote was received.
"We've heard many, many people say I want to make sure my vote counts," Cortese said. "And I think right now just because there's rumors or some suspicion or some kind of a cloud over what happened here, it's important to people on an individual basis to know that their vote counted."
Liccardo told NBC Bay Area that he welcomes the recount and said that he supports anything that will increase the confidence of the outcome of the ballot-counting process in Santa Clara County.
