IID races to be decided in November
EL CENTRO — With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted, not including mail-ins and provisionals, District 2 Imperial County Board Supervisor Luis Plancarte leads his challenger Claudia Camarena by well more than 400 votes.
Plancarte, the incumbent and chairman of the board for 2020, was still processing the early results Tuesday night in which he received 1,732 votes to Camarena’s total of 1,262.
“First, I would to thank everyone who showed up to vote.” Plancarte said, adding that he would continue to monitor the votes over the night as they came in.
The exact numbers with all of the mail-in and provisional ballots may not be known for some time.
Plancarte said that in his second term on the board, he wants to continue to improve the quality of life for all residents.
“I am really humbled to see the early numbers,” he said.
Camarena was unaware of the early numbers, but when she was informed of the results after 81.9 of the precincts were reporting, she said the numbers were close to where they were at four years ago when she first ran for the seat.
“Oh my gosh,” she said. “It’s what the people are saying. I tried my best.”
Camarena, who ran on the county being fiscally irresponsible, said she is not sure if she would run for the seat a third time four years from now.
“I would really have to pray about it,” she said.
IID Division 2
While 23-year-old John Hamby increased his vote totals throughout Tuesday night over his challengers for the Division 2 Imperial Irrigation Board of Directors, who he will run off against in November was too close to call.
With more than 90 percent of the precincts reporting, not including provisional and mailin ballots, Hamby had received 1,219 votes to incumbent Bruce Kuhn’s 811 votes and 765 votes for El Centro attorney Ryan Childers.
The top two vote getters advance to the November general election.
Kuhn on Tuesday night said that the election was too close to call, adding he thinks there could be several more thousand votes that have yet to be counted.
Kuhn also said since there were four candidates running for his IID Board of Directors seat he was pretty sure there would be a runoff because it would be unlikely one of the candidates would get more than 50 percent of the vote.
Hamby expressed excitement with the early returns, which have staked him to a sizable lead, saying he wants to thank all of the people who supported him in his campaign.
“We are very humbled and excited,” he said. “It’s been 130 days since we started this campaign.”
Hamby said he tried to meet with everyone and listen to their concerns, as a way to tell them their concerns were being heard.
“It has been a public education campaign,” he said. “We are excited with what we are seeing tonight.”
Hamby said he has heard a few people saying he was too young to be an IID director, but he thinks the early vote shows his message has been well received.
“We are going to carry this on to November,” he said, adding that he wants to tell the voters the story of keeping water in the Valley.
With more than 90 percent of the precincts reporting, Dilda McFadden was a distant fourth with just 186 votes.
IID Division 4
Division 4 IID Director Incumbent Erik Ortega appears to be headed toward the November runoff, but who he would be opposing is not clear.
With almost 63 percent of the precincts reporting, which does not include provisional or mail- in ballots, Ortega had received 652 votes. Challenger Javier Gonzalez had 430 votes, while Joong Kim was at 348 votes.
Since Ortega’s vote total is just under 46 percent he would have to face the second- place vote getter in the November election since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.
“I would like to thank everyone who voted for me and everyone who came out to vote,” Ortega said. “I am very humbled with the ( early) results.”
He thinks his experience on the IID, especially in 2019 when he served as IID board president, is what Division 4 voters want in an IID director.
Some of his past accomplishments as board president were the fight against Assembly Bill 854 and the Drought Contingency Plan.
“I am very thankful the voters did their work,” he said.