ELECTION NIGHT IN MENDOCINO COUNTY
For this year's Primary Election, neither rain nor more rain delayed the 8 p.m. poll closures throughout Mendocino County.
According to Katrina Bartolomie, the county's Registrar of Voters, Assessor, County Clerk and more, voters were encouraged to mail in their ballots due to the recent and tenacious inclement weather.
But not surprisingly, a steady stream of voters lined up outside the county Admin offices to drop off their ballots just before the 8 p.m. deadline. Bartolomie and staff were on hand to shut down the on-street ballot box and collect the evening's last ballots just as the clock struck 8:00.
Because of the county's geography, ballots from Gualala and Point Arena must be driven over to the county offices and do not arrive until after 10 p.m. Staff had been on hand since about 6 a.m. to prep for the evening's count and to help voters sort out any technical issues.
The vote count was updated throughout the evening and results are posted on the county's website. Bartolomie estimated there would be four updates throughout the night.
At 8 p.m., the first tranche of absentee ballots was reported. Donald Trump led the Republican Party's choice for President with 1,265 votes. Nikki Haley trailed Mr. Trump with 323 votes. A total of 1,658 votes had been tallied.
President Joseph Biden unsurprisingly led the Democratic candidates with 3,754 out of 4,064 ballots cast. Green Party candidate Jill Stein garnered 23 votes.
With 6,689 votes tallied, Adam Schiff led in the race for the fullterm U.S. Senate seat, with Steve Garvey gathering 1,418 and Katie Porter 946 votes. Schiff also led in the Partial Term category with 2,293 votes; with Garvey earning 1,606, Porter 1,467 and Barbara Lee with 1,004 votes.
The Second Congressional District House of Representative race was led by Jared Huffman with 4,698 votes. Chris Coulombe was in second place with 1,304 votes.
The Second Assembly District race was led by Michael Greer with 1,776 votes. Ted Williams received 1,441 votes, Rusty Hicks had 1,114 and Chris Rogers had 847. Ariel Kelly and Frankie Myers were nearly tied for fifth place with Kelly receiving 748 and Myers receiving 766 votes.
In local races, Madeline Cline had a comfortable lead for 1st District Supervisor with 837 votes. Adam Gaska had 319, Trevor Mockel 130 and Carrie Shattuck 119 votes.
In the 2nd Supervisorial District, Maureen Mulheren and Jacob Brown were nearly tied, with Mulheren receiving 540 votes and Brown receiving 516.
Bernie Norvell began the race for 4th District Supervisor with a commanding lead of 1,536 votes over Georgina Avila- Gorman's 347 votes.
Yes votes for Proposition 1 were leading No votes — 3,983 to 2,914. And support for Measure R began the evening with a handy lead, with 5,601 Yes votes to 1,321 No votes.
Bartolomie stressed the importance of the many poll workers who are a key part of the smooth and accurate vote count in Mendocino County.
“We try to have the equivalent of four FTE workers at each polling place,” she explained, noting there are 38 polling places at 21 locations throughout the county. In addition, six extra-help vote counters will be spending the next few days counting votes. “Four of our
counters have been here for some time, and we have two new counters this year.”
Regarding the recent ballot printing errors, Bartolomie noted she was very sorry for the mishap. “I'm also very proud that our vendor was able to correct the ballots so quickly.” Thus far, the only misprint issues staff have encountered were voters coming to the office with both ballots — unopened, requesting assistance to confirm which ballot to use.
A bigger problem Bartolomie had encountered is an ambiguous question posed by the Department of Motor Vehicles during license renewal.
“The question asks, `Are you registered?' she explains. This is resulting in people re- registering to vote. “I have spoken to DMV, and they are working on rephrasing the question.”
Updates to the vote count were scheduled to take place at 10 p.m. Tuesday, midnight and 2 a.m. on Wednesday. For online updates, visit the County of Mendocino website at https://www.mendocino-county.gov/government/assessor-county-clerk-re-corder-elections/current-election-results