Posted: 02/21/2012 05:53:33 PM PST

San Bernardino city clerk candidate Amelia Sanchez-Lopez on Tuesday requested a recount of the ballots cast in a tight run-off race in which she lost by only three votes.

Her opponent, Georgeann “Gigi” Hanna – a former journalist and public affairs officer – was planning to take office March 5, after the Registrar of Voters last week certified she’d won the run-off.

After auditing 1 percent of the ballots and adding 13 ballots that were disqualified in the initial count Feb. 7, Hanna’s margin of victory grew to three – 6,073 votes to Sanchez-Lopez’s 6,070.

But at the time, Sanchez-Lopez, who is coordinator of the county Public Health Department’s alcohol- and drug-abuse prevention program and who also serves as a planning commissioner, said the number of uncounted votes might mean the people’s voice wasn’t heard.

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