One week after election, many races still close

One week after the polls closed on Election Day, more than 20 races in the Bay Area are too close to call with candidates hanging on to razor-thin leads, according to unofficial voter results in Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.

A mere 40 votes separate the candidates in the Martinez City Council District 4 seat. John Stevens has 50.7 percent of the vote, or 1,507 votes, and Debbie McKillop has 49.4 percent, or 1,467 votes.

The margin is only currently 49 votes in the Fremont City Council District 4 race. Yang Shao has 24.8 percent of the vote, or 1,692 votes, and Robert Daulton has 24.1 percent, or 1,643 votes.

In the District 1 and 4 races in the Moraga-Orinda Fire District, less than 60 votes in each race separate the candidates. In District 1, Gregory Baitx has 51.3 percent of the vote, or 1,086, to Nathan Bell, with 48.7 percent, or 1,031. In District 4, Michael Bonner has 50.9 percent of the vote, or 1,433 votes, to Lucy Talbot’s 49.1 percent, or 1,383 votes.

Other close races in Contra Costa County include the West Contra Costa Unified School District, Clayton City Council, Moraga Town Council, Byron Bethany Irrigation District Division 1 Director, Diablo Water District Director, Diablo Community Services District Director, Kensington Police Protection and Community Services Director, Kensington Fire Protection District, Orinda City Council, Pinole City Council, Richmond City Council and San Pablo City Council.

In Alameda County, Alameda City Councilwoman Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft’s once-slim lead is growing against Mayor Trish Spencer in the mayor’s race. Ashcraft has 41.8 percent of the vote, or 8,874 votes, to Spencer’s 37.3 percent, or 8,811.

Other close races in Alameda County include the Albany school board race, San Leandro City Council District 3, and the Union City council for the third seat.

In Santa Clara County, as many as four candidates are still vying for the third seat on the Cupertino City Council. Savita Vaidhyanatham currently holds third place with 14.15 percent of the vote, or 4,409; followed by Hung Wei, with 13.95 percent; or 4,396, and Jon Robert Willey, with 13.81 percent, or 4,301.

Another close Santa Clara County race is in the Alum Rock school district’s third seat, where 20 votes separate Khanh Tran and Ernesto Bejarano.

In Mountain View, 51 votes separate Alison Hicks and Pat Showalter for the third seat on the City Council.

With thousands of mailin ballots still to be counted in the Bay Area, the results remain up in the air.

The trend is for more and more California voters turning to mail-in ballots, which take longer to count, according to elections staff and experts.

“This is the new normal,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “We vote for a month and count ballots for a month in California.”

Elections offices have 30 days to certify results. Tim Dupuis, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, said earlier that Alameda County is working to certify the results before Thanksgiving.

As of Nov. 9, in Contra Costa County, an estimated 108,000 ballots remain to be counted. Of those, 82,000 were mail-in ballots, 25,000 provisional ballots and about 1,000 are conditional voter ballots.

Provisional ballots are cast by people who believe they are registered to vote even though their names are not on the official voter registration list or by people expected to vote by mail who instead show up at their polling place without a ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s office. Voters also are allowed to vote conditionally if they did not register to vote by the Oct. 22 deadline. These votes have to be verified by elections officials.

In Santa Clara County, an estimated 74 percent of the ballots have been counted.