MONTGOMERY STEPPE TAKES EARLY LEAD IN DISTRICT 4 ELECTION
Tallying mail-in votes and finalizing results could take weeks
Democrat Monica Montgomery Steppe held a doubledigit lead over the other three candidates vying for the vacant county District 4 supervisor seat but did not yet command the majority required to win the special election outright, based on partial early returns released late Tuesday.
Behind her, Republican Amy Reichert held an advantage over Democrat Janessa Goldbeck, the initial returns showed, while Republican Paul McQuigg trailed in single digits.
But with thousands of ballots still to be counted, the outcome is far from certain. Election officials expect to give their next results update Thursday evening, but the process could take weeks.
If no candidate wins a majority of the vote once all of the ballots have been counted, the two who commanded the most votes will proceed to a runoff on Nov. 7.
The preliminary results published late Tuesday included mail ballots received before election day, as well as returns from in-person voting. An estimated 20,000 ballots are still outstanding.
Under California law, the county registrar of voters has 30 days to certify election results, although the process is expected to conclude sooner given the limited scope of the special election.
Tuesday marked the last day to vote in the special election for county District 4 supervisor. The district’s nearly 700,000 residents have been without a representative since Nathan Fletcher stepped down earlier this year amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Running for the seat are Goldbeck, a veterans’ advocate; Montgomery Steppe, a San Diego City Council member; Reichert, a co-founder of ReOpen San Diego; and McQuigg, a retired Marine.
“We’re waiting for all the votes to be tallied, but I feel really good about our position and confident that I will be on the ballot for the Nov. 7 runoff,” Reichert said.
In the weeks leading up to Tuesday, the race has seen a flurry of aggressive campaigning despite its compressed schedule. At stake is not only the District 4 seat but also control of
the five-member Board of Supervisors, which is currently split between two Democrats and two Republicans.
Montgomery Steppe said late Tuesday that her campaign had made every effort to achieve the “best result” possible.
“We showed up. We had a lot of voter contact. We have some awesome endorsements that meant a lot to people, and we just hoped for the best,” Montgomery Steppe said.
On Tuesday, residents cast ballots at 14 voting centers across the district — which encompasses central San Diego neighborhoods such as Clairemont and City Heights as well as the cities of La Mesa, Lemon Grove and beyond.
Cynthia Paes, the county registrar of voters, said election day ran smoothly, with in-person turnout noticeably higher than it had been the previous 10 days.
“The vote centers opened on time this morning, and turnout has been steady throughout the day,” she said.
Her office piloted a timetracking system to monitor activity. Even with the pickup in foot traffic, the facilities did not have lines, and people were able to get in and out in a matter of minutes, Paes said.
“I wish all election days were like this,” said Tania Warburg, 84, just after voting at United Church of Christ in La Mesa. “I walked right in and didn’t have to wait in line. The whole process probably took me less than 10 minutes.”
Warburg, who had arrived to vote around 8 a.m., said she has never missed an election if she could help it. “As a Black woman, I take my civic duty seriously,” she added.
Recent special elections in San Diego have historically received a fraction of a typical election’s turnout, according to the registrar.
In April of last year, only 16 percent of the 246,000 registered voters in state Assembly District 80 voted. The year prior, 21 percent of the 302,000 registered voters in state Assembly District 79 turned out.
As of close of registration on July 31, there were a total of 394,373 registered voters in this year’s county District 4 special election, all of whom recieved mail-in ballots.
Of the ballots that were mailed out to voters, 76,851 had been returned and tabulated by election officials as of Tuesday evening. Another 2,438 ballots cast at vote centers had been counted as of late that night.
Among those who returned her mail ballot early was Olivia Hoxford, who had brought her children to the playground Tuesday at the South Clairemont Recreation Center, one of the district’s polling places.
“I filled it out and immediately threw that thing right back in the mailbox when I received it,” she said.
“Getting all three of my kids to sit quiet while I vote — even if there’s only one question on the ballot — is near impossible,” she added, before turning to coax her youngest down the slide.
The recreation center’s small, 12-spot parking lot was full around lunchtime, but few of those spaces were taken up by voters.
“I just became a U.S. citizen, so I was excited to come out,” said Chris Chang, the only voter in the rec center. “I feel a little spoiled being the only one here.”