Lodi City Council: Changing of the guard?
Khan, Hothi take early leads on Tuesday, but seats still up for grabs
With only mail-in ballots recorded for the Lodi City Council races by 9 p.m. Tuesday, early results had Shakir “Shak” Khan and Mikey Hothi leading in their respective districts.
Khan had collected 447 votes for 48.64% of the District 4 race, while Hothi amassed 1,422 votes for 54.9% of the District 5 race, according to results from the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters.
Khan pulled an early lead over incumbent JoAnne Mounce, who by 9 p.m. had 176 votes. Challengers Ramon Yepez and Natalie Bowman pulled 160 and 135, respectively.
Despite the legal issues Khan had in the days leading up to the election, he said he was happy voters had confidence in him.
“I worked hard on my campaign, and I’m going to make sure the things I talked about in my campaign are addressed, especially on the east side,” he said. “I want to bring everyone together and work with the council to make Lodi a safe place for families.”
Hothi, who currently serves as a district supervisor for Assemblyman Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, led local business owner Michael McKnight and student Hector Madrigal, who collected 654 and 501 votes, respectively, by 9 p.m.
“It’s been an honor to earn so much support from our heroes in public safety, to friends and family,” Hothi said Tuesday night. “While we have a long way to go in counting votes, it’s looking good for us and I hope to be serving the people of Lodi very shortly.”
Election officials said voters had flocked to service centers like the Lodi Grape Festival grounds Tuesday, where residents were lined up out the door to cast ballots in person.
Jesse Gonzalez was voting for the first time, and said 2020 was the first year he had become interested in politics. Witnessing all the events that happened the past 10 months was more than
enough reason to know voting was important this year.
“With the riots going on and everything like that, I just felt it was important to vote and hopefully change that in the coming year,” he said. “No one likes seeing rioting, the looting, the hatefulness on both sides. I think regardless of who we vote for and who wins, it should all just be a peaceful outcome and we should just accept what happens.”
Resident Laverne Burns said while voting every election is important, it was even more critical this year because of the media attention both major party presidential candidates had generated.
“It’s a very important election, and I’m glad to be a part of it,” she said. “It’s just been a lot of hype and a lot of media attention, and it just seems like it’s more important. I think it’s going to be a close race.”
Dede Frey, manager at De Vinci’s Delicatessen and Catering, said there was a steady flow of residents coming into the restaurant to place their ballots in one of four official drop boxes in Lodi.
“We opened our doors at 7 this morning, and it’s been a steady stream all day,” she said. “We’ve had it for several weeks, but yesterday and today has been big. It’s really convenient too, because we’re so central for people. A lot of people had said it’s really great.”
Frey said she would love to be a drop box location for the next election, and that some of De Vinci’s other stores, like Stockton and Linden, may even be drop-off locations in the future.
“It’s been a fun experience,” she said. “I like being in the middle of it. We’ve had a lot of support from Lodi PD, if there were any problems let them know. Everyone has been super excited. They’ve even asked if this was secure or a real one.”
Frey said there had been no issues or safety problems with the box during the weeks and days leading up to the election.
The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters was reporting Jay Vandenburg and Kevin Papineau leading the pack of five for Galt City Council just minutes after the polls closed.
Vandenburg led with 29% of the vote, while Papineau garnered 27% with nine of 10 precincts reporting.