Too close to call
Blizzard delays final local vote count; there are still enough ballots uncounted to leave top local races unsettled
After a long week of waiting for local election results to come in due to a Election Day storm that shut down most of Mono County, the third-place candidates for the Mammoth Lake Town Council were tied at press time Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16 and, the Mammoth Unified School District’s school board race could also change, although that was less likely due to the separation between the top two candidates and the remaining six candidates.
First, the outstanding ballots. According to the Mono County Elections Office, there are a total of 7,712 registered voters in Mono County, with just under 4,000 registered voters in Mammoth Lakes. There was a total of 4,532 ballots cast in the Nov. 8 mid-term General Election as of the last count at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15 (another count was expected Wednesday evening, Nov. 16 according to the elections office, but it would be after the Times went to press).
The total turnout was 58.77 percent of all registered voters, or 4,523 ballots cast, which is about double the state’s rate of turnout, and one of the top turnout rates in the state.
At last count, there were 18 provisional or conditional ballots that still needed to be verified and 175 ballots that had some procedural issues, such as mismatched signatures, according to the elections office. State law allows voters to correct or ‘cure’ such ballots by producing a matching signature etc., up until Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. (see below for more on how to do this) so some of those ballots will not be counted until they
be discarded if they are not cured.
Given that many still outstanding ballots, all of the numbers for the very top vote getters for the local races could still change, including one race for Town Council where the third-place candidates are tied.
For example, at the last count, with six Mammoth Lakes Town Council candidates vying for three open seats, candidate Chris Bubser was in first place with 1,045 votes, or 21.68 percent of the vote; John Wentworth was in second place with 997 votes or 20.68 percent of the vote, and Amanda Rice and Betsy Truax were TIED with 962 votes each, or 19.96 percent of the vote each. Cleland Hoff came in fifth at 516 votes or 10.71 percent of the vote and Seth Guthrie was sixth at 338 votes, or 7.01 percent of the vote.
This means that even one uncounted ballot from Mammoth noted above could change the race between third-place candidates Betsy Truax and Amanda Rice, leaving the race for the third and final person to sit on the Town Council race up in the air at last count before the Times went to press.
The MUSD school board race was a little less unsettled with two candidates far enough ahead to have a good chance of staying in the lead; for this race, there are eight candidates running for only two seats. For almost the entire week since the election, the same two candidates have been leading; Glen ‘Marty’ Thompson and Chelsea Nash. At the last count, Thompson had 740 votes, or 17.87 percent of the vote and Nash had 726 votes, or 17.53 percent of the vote.
The third person in line was Amanda Pelham at 634 votes, or 15.31 percent of the vote and right after her, Gloria Diaz with 613 votes. It is possible that if most of the uncounted ballots were from Mammoth and most of them went to either Pelham or Diaz, they could catch up to Nash and Thompson, but both of those conditions would need to be met. Again, this is possible, although not as likely as Nash and Thompson holding onto their leads and getting onto the board.
The rest of the candidates came in like this: Becky Davis had 474 votes; John Stavlo had 445; Cindie Wormhoudt had 420 and Jeff Ronci had 89.
In other races, Mono County voted for Governor Newsom at 55 percent compared to Brian Dahle at 45.4 percent; they voted for the new Congressional District 3 with Democrat Dr. Kermit Jones leading at 58.3 percent of the vote and Republican Kevin Kiley coming in at 41.7 percent of the vote. At press time, this race was still un-called with a large number of votes outstanding, although Kiley did have a several percentage point lead.
The CD 3 race remains one of the outstanding House races that will determine who controls the House of Representatives and by how much.
Mono County voted for Democrat Tim Robertson for its State Senate seat with 58.9 percent of the vote compared to Democrat Marie Alvarado Gil at 41.1 percent of the vote. At press time, Alvarado-gil was leading by several points, but with enough outstanding votes for Roberston to possibly, if not likely, catch up.
County residents did all this in the middle of the biggest snowstorm on Election Day in recent history, on a day with blizzard-level winds made visibility in Mammoth and most of the county near zero and in the midst of an almost all day shutdown of U.S. 395. Due to the prevalence of Mail In ballots, however, most votes were in by the time the storm struck, with 3,923 votes coming in Vote by Mail ballots and 609 votes cast across the county on Election Day itself.
When will the final count be ready? There are still some outstanding ballots that could arrive in the Elections office because Mono County ballots that were mailed from other counties to Mono County by the deadline on Election Day had until Nov. 15 to reach the Elections Office and be counted, the Elections Office said, which was before the went to press Wednesday. Although this is likely to be a small number still outstanding at press time, with a tied vote between the third place Town Council candidates, every vote does count and that race at least could change.
The remaining ballots noted above will be counted as soon as possible, the
Elections Office said, but there is still a few more days for ballots to be accepted and legally counted.
For example, for anyone who has been notified there is a problem with their ballots, they have until 5 p.m. Nov. 21 to correct that ballot, according to the Elections Office. “We need voters to return their signature cure letters,” the Elections Office said. “We want their votes to count and they have until 5 p.m. Nov. 21 to get their signature cure letter back to us. They can email it back to us, but they don’t have to mail it; they can email it as well. They can return the letter in the provided postage prepaid envelope, by email, fax, or in person, but it MUST be received by us by 5 PM Nov. 21.”
FOR MORE ELECTION INFO
For the latest, daily-changing Mono County Elections ballot count updates, go to https://monocounty.ca.gov/elections/page/november-8-2022-general-election-results and scroll down to the latest ‘Semi-final Election County Summary’ pdf. Also, read the info at the top of this page to see how many ballots are still outstanding at the time of the count.
• If you want to be sure your vote was counted, go to https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-status/wheres-myballot.
• If you have question, contact the Mono County Elections Office at 760-932-5534, or 760-934-5537.