VALLEJO, Calif.—Election Day turned into Groundhog Day in this waterfront city.

First, Gary Cloutier was declared the winner by five votes and became the San Francisco Bay area’s first gay mayor. Then, a recount gave rival Osby Davis a two-vote edge, making him Vallejo’s first black mayor.

Now, Cloutier is arguing the recount was tainted by sloppy tallying and fraud, and he wants to know how a vote for him ended up in the trash.

The race for mayor of Vallejo, a blue-collar city of 117,000 about 30 miles from San Francisco, was interesting from the start. Both Cloutier and Davis were trying to become trailblazers.

Cloutier, 45, a former city councilman, and Davis, 62, a former county supervisor, had ended Election Day in a dead heat, and officials spent days counting absentee and provisional ballots before declaring a winner.

Cloutier says the recount was riddled with problems. At one point, Davis led by three until an absentee ballot for Cloutier was found in a pile of plastic bags. Cloutier calls that evidence of fraud and went to court Dec. 11, unsuccessfully seeking a court order stopping Davis from taking over as mayor.

After Davis was sworn in that evening, Cloutier left the council chambers, but not before echoing actor and Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I’ll be back,” he said.