Eric Bauman won the chairmanship of the California Democratic Party over the weekend. | AP Photo Bernie backers rage over Calif. Democratic Party chair race Audit underway after accusations of ballot stuffing, floor protests.

SAN FRANCISCO — Supporters of the losing candidate in a bitterly disputed election to serve as chair of the California Democratic Party say they’ll begin a detailed audit of the votes on Tuesday.

The move comes after protests, allegations of ballot stuffing and bitter disputes after votes at a weekend party convention.


Longtime party operative Eric Bauman won the chairmanship of the California Democratic Party over the weekend — but his victory was marred by complaints of ballot-stuffing and floor protests. Backers of the Kimberly Ellis, a favorite of the “Berniecrat,” activist wing of the party — say efforts to scrutinize the votes will begin immediately.

The unprecedented effort to examine the documentation of the disputed state party’s election results was announced by outgoing California Democratic Party chair John Burton at the close of a raucous state Democratic convention this weekend.

Ellis, the former director of Emerge America, a women’s political organization, lost the election by a narrow margin of 62 votes out of 3,000 cast. Her loss immediately set off protests from hundreds of her backers, many of whom charged that there were irregularities that included allowing voters to cast proxy ballots without proper ID.

Some Democratic insiders are already worried the dispute has potential to do long-term damage, creating a rift in the state party as it heads into crucial 2018 elections, where as many as nine GOP House seats could be at stake in California.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“This is our Tea Party moment,’’ said one leading Democratic strategist. “And it’s not going away.”

Republicans have already seized on the protests. State party chairman Jim Brulte said the issue underscores “the complete hypocrisy of the Democrats when it comes to election integrity.”

“Democrats think voter identification laws are important for their party elections, but don’t think they are good enough for the California voters,” Brulte said in a statement. “It should be clear to the people of California that the Democrats are willing to put the elections of our state officials at risk while protecting their own Party elections."

Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Bauman, said he welcomes the review process and will not interfere in it.

“This has never been a secret ballot election. The party’s going to make all records available for review,’’ Maviglio said. “The ballots were counted with representative of all candidates in the room in a very public process, and they’re allowed to inspect everything available,’’ he said.

He said Bauman is convinced “the results of the election will speak for themselves.”

Ellis backers say they’re so convinced the audit will find the outcome in their favor that, if necessary, they will use the manpower and money necessary to contact every one of the nearly 3,000 delegates who cast votes in the race to sign legal affidavits regarding their vote.

“We raised half a million dollars for this election,” said Ellis’ strategist Joe Macaluso, “and we’ll have the volunteers and donations to support the effort.”

The race between Bauman, a longtime party operative, and Ellis, a relative newcomer, was cast as one between the left and the far left of the party, between “new school” and “old school’’ wings — Berniecrat activists and more traditional Democrats.

Macaluso, a lead strategist for the Ellis, said that going into the election during the Democratic Convention in Sacramento, the Ellis campaign had carefully tracked its voters and it determined that 97 percent of those who said they would support her turned up to vote for her.

When the razor-thin outcome was announced, Ellis supporters demanded recounts and a re-vote from the floor — only to be told by Burton there were no provisions for such a move. But Burton did promise Ellis would be given full access to the ballots, now in the possession of the party’s executive director, Chris Myers, for examination.

Macaluso said Ellis will not concede the election until the audit is finished, a process that’s expected to be done quickly, and that she will abide by the results.

“Kimberly says we need to assume the best in everyone, but until we look at it, we won’t be able to validate the election,’’ he said. “But nobody has more of a vested interest in making sure there is no question about the fairness of this election than Eric Bauman. So of all people who should want this to be done cleanly – it’s him.”