Ballots go out ahead of Nov.’s special elections

Ballots are on their way to some registered voters in San Diego County ahead of next month's special elections.

Nearly 600,000 voters in supervisorial District 4, Chula Vista, the Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District should receive ballots this week.

Election Day — the final day to cast a ballot, whether by voting in person, dropping one's mail ballot in a ballot drop box or mailing it — is Tuesday, Nov. 7.

In District 4, voters will choose between San Diego City Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe and activist Amy Reichert to replace Nathan Fletcher in a special runoff.

The District 4 supervisor represents nearly 700,000 residents in an area encompassing central San Diego neighborhoods such as Clairemont and City Heights as well as the cities of La Mesa, Lemon Grove and beyond. Whoever is elected will serve through January 2027.

In Chula Vista, the special election will look to fill the city attorney seat. The City Council declared the seat vacant last year when voters elected Simon Silva. The Chula Vista deputy city attorney had died two months before the election, but his name could not be removed from the November 2022 ballot.

Since then, three people have qualified to appear on the ballot: Dan Smith Diaz, a federal criminal defense lawyer; Bart Miesfeld, a formerly appointed Chula Vista city attorney; and Marco Verdugo, a deputy city attorney serving Coronado and Solana Beach.

Whoever is elected will serve through December 2026. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote next month, a runoff will be held March 5 — the date of the 2024 primary.

Voters in the Fallbrook utility district and Rainbow water district will vote on measures that would allow the two districts to separate from the county Water Authority. Leaders of both want to withdraw in favor of the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County, a move they say would lower water bills. Only the voters who live in each of those districts can vote in their respective elections.

Early voting began Monday at the Registrar of Voters' office in Kearny Mesa and will be available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Ballot drop boxes around the county open today.