Registrar finalizes results
The Imperial County Registrar of Voters released the official final results of the June 6 special election for the vacated Division I seat in Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors on Wednesday evening.
The final tally of votes had no change from the latest unofficial results released Monday. Imperial Valley College Board Trustee Juanita Salas ended with 920 votes, Ed Snively with 664 votes, Tony Gallegos had 222 votes and Blake Miles had 204 votes.
The next step before Salas takes her seat is for the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to certify the results before Salas can join the IID board. It’s expected she can take her seat later this month.
“I want to thank my family, friends, volunteers and supporters for working tirelessly on my campaign, (the June 6) win is not mine alone — thank you,” said Salas in a previously released statement.
A total of 2,018 votes were cast out of 10,616 registered voters in the division for a total of 19.01 percent voter turnout.
In a previous article, the Imperial Valley Press reported Salas received the least amount of contributions out of the four candidates according to preliminary finance documents reported to the Registrar of Voters office from each candidate prior to May 25.
According to those documents, Salas had received $2,760 in individual contributions with half of those coming from individuals outside of the Imperial Valley.
Salas also shows a total of $5,200 in expenditures in the most recent documents submitted.
Snively is the candidate that has reported the largest sum of contributions totaling $47,800, while reporting the total amount of expenses at $38,400.
Former IID Director Gallegos reported a total of $12,700 in contribution and a little more than $6,200 in expenses.
Miles reported $3,400 in total contributions and $2,800 in expenditures.
All four candidates have until July 31 to report their final campaign contributions and expenses in the final period between May 21 and June 30.
The seat for Division 1 for the IID board became vacant in January after former board member Matt Dessert left the board after he was appointed the new Air Pollution Control Officer by the Imperial County Board of Supervisors in December.
Since 2014, the IID also redrew its district boundaries. Tuesday’s election was the first election under the new boundaries for Division 1 which covers Westmorland, the southern portion of Brawley and the northern portion of El Centro.