By a Whisker: Indian American Engineer Murali Srinivasan Wins District 3 Seat on Sunnyvale City Council by One Vote
- The votes, which went into a recount, resulted in the same outcome as the Nov. 8 election day tally and was certified last week.
Indian American engineer Murali Srinivasan has made history by winning an open seat on the Sunnyvale City Council from District 3 by a single vote. Given the slimmest of the margins, Santa Clara County’s Registrar of Voters automatically conducted a recount. Last week, it certified the election and declared Srinivasan the winner.
The recount revealed the same result as the Nov. 8 election day tally — 2,813 out of 5,625 votes for Srinivasan and 2,812 votes for Justin Wang, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
“Thank God there are no fraction votes,” Srinivasan told San José Spotlight. He told the paper that he feels good about the results, not just because he won, but because his district saw much higher participation than the city council race. “Which means that both my opponent and I did a very good job of getting to the voters and asking them to participate in the election,” he told the paper. “After all, that is what democracy is all about.”
He becomes the first person to represent District 3 in Sunnyvale, which was newly formed in 2020. At the time, Srinivasan told KTVU that he decided it was time to take another step as a community leader. A Sunnyvale resident for over 25 years, he has served four years on the city’s Sustainability Commission and volunteered in his neighborhood. “I’ve been an engineer throughout my life,” the told KTVU. “For me, everything was a learning experience. I was learning as I am flying, as such. So, everything was new. I didn’t know if it would be tough or easy. I was doing what I felt was necessary to run a successful campaign.” Admitting that he didn’t know what to expect during the campaign, he told KTVU he’s learned one thing now, “that every vote counts.”
Srinivasan was born and raised in Bangalore. He holds Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and Engineering Management from Stanford University. He has been an engineer and a tech executive at Sun Microsystems and General Electric. He has also consulted for Ariba/SAP and Amazon and has started and managed a string of successful startups.