Medical marijuana recount nears end

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The Alameda County Registrar of Voters is expected to finish today with a recount of a November ballot measure that would have relaxed medical marijuana laws in Berkeley.

The measure lost by 191 votes, leading proponents to spend $27,000 to date on a recount. Results could be available as early as today but might not be released until next week.

In the midst of the recount, Americans for Safe Access, a medical cannabis advocacy group, filed a lawsuit last week in an effort to gain backup data from the Diebold electronic voting machines used in the election.

The plaintiffs are requesting the backup records to assess the “accuracy and integrity of electronically stored vote data,” according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Oakland.

Elaine Ginnold, assistant registrar of voters, said the material requested is not relevant to a recount.

“Our definition of meaningful and their definition of meaningful are two different things,” she said.

Measure R would have replaced the city’s 10-plant limit with a patient’s “personal needs,” as defined by a doctor and the patient.

It would have relaxed zoning laws for dispensariesRecount is due today and set up a peer review committee to oversee operations at the city’s three dispensaries.

Ginnold said the measure was the closest vote in Alameda County on Nov. 2 and the only one where a recount was requested.

Results showed 25,167 Berkeley residents voted against the measure, while 24,976 voted in favor of it.

Both paper absentee and provisional ballots have been recounted by hand during the past three weeks.

The ballot measure to loosen medical marijuana laws followed city leaders’ unsuccessful attempt in the spring to relax the laws.

The Berkeley City Council in April tabled Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s proposal to increase the number of medical cannabis plants from 10 to 72 following concerns about increased crime and questions about how much dry marijuana one plant produces.

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