PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
July 11, 2012 | 4:00 pm

Phil Liberatore, the third-place finisher in a 13-candidate congressional race, has asked for a recount of ballots cast in the June 5 primary, San Bernardino County elections officials confirmed Wednesday.

Liberatore, a Republican accountant and anti-IRS tax crusader, finished 240 votes behind Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) in the preliminary race for the 8th Congressional District. The top vote-getter was anti-illegal immigration activist Gregg Imus, also a Republican.

Under the state’s new, voter-approved elections system, all candidates in a race for Congress or the state Legislature appear on the same ballot and only the top two finishers, regardless of any political party affiliation, can advance to the general election.

The recount will begin Friday and would take more than a week, said county Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello. He said Liberatore has chosen the precincts he wants reexamined first and has the option of deciding at the end of each day whether to proceed.

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