Super Tuesday results
District 1 going to runoff, Griefer wins D4, Brandon leads in D5
Tuolumne County election results as of midday Wednesday showed changes are coming to the county Board of Supervisors, with Steve Griefer winning District 4 in a landslide, Jaron Brandon leading to retain his District 5 seat, and District 1 heading to a November runoff between Mike Holland and either Sonora Mayor Mark Plummer or Sonora City Councilman Matt Hawkins.
The top three vote-getters in a four-candidate race for three seats on the Sonora City Council were incumbent Ann Segerstrom and City Planning Commissioners Stephen Opie and Bess Levine, according to unofficial results from late Tuesday.
About 4,000 ballots remained uncounted, and the county Elections Department hoped to have another update on ballots and votes counted by late Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, Auditorcontroller Debi Bautista, the county’s registrar of voters, said in a phone interview Wednesday.
“We’re probably in the 4,000 ballot range,” Bautista said of the ballots that remained to be counted. “We got 1,000 ballots in the mail today, and about 3,000 remain uncounted from the vote centers, the drop off boxes, and those dropped off at election headquarters.”
The pace of mail-in ballots arriving at election headquarters depends primarily on the U.S. Postal Service, Buatista said.
“We expect some more ballots tomorrow that were properly postmarked March 5,” Bautista said. “We can accept them up to March 12 as long as they postmarked March 5. We don’t expect another thousand mailin ballots.
Griefer, a retired California Highway Patrol officer, will be the next District 4 county supervisor in the wake of his landslide victory over opponent Kathryn Saari. Griefer had 2,146 votes, or about 79%, and Saari had 584 votes, or about 21%.
Griefer, who has lived in Groveland the past 12 years and worked for the CHP there most of that time, credited his big win in part to name recognition.
“Having lived and worked in the community as long as I have, and my experience as an officer, lends to the credibility of the message I was putting out,” Griefer said. “My opponent is a very dedicated researcher and very passionate, so you never know.”
The race did not have an incumbent because sitting Dis
trict 4 Supervisor Kathleen Haff has decided to retire when her current term ends in January.
Between now and January, Griefer said he plans to begin shadowing the board and meeting with county staff to better understand the needs of the county and district so he can “hit the ground full steam.”
Saari, who moved to East Sonora less than two years ago, said she “went for it, jumped off the boat and was learning how to swim” in her first bid for elected office, but this is only the beginning.
“I also hope that my running is an inspiration for other people, real people, to start stepping up for local office,” Saari said.
In the District 5 county supervisor race, Brandon jumped out to a big lead over challenger Arthur Schmidt when the first round of results were released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Brandon maintained the same lead through the third and final round of results from the night released after 10 p.m., with 1,707 votes, or about 59%, and Schmidt trailed with 1,174 votes, or about 41%.
“We put forward a lot of bold ideas, and I’m very happy that our community supported putting us on a different, but better, path to solving problems,” Brandon said. “Now, we put the political differences aside and work for the communities of Columbia and Jamestown.”
Schmidt could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The four-person race for District 1 county supervisor will be headed to a runoff in the Nov. 5 general election between Holland and either Plummer or Hawkins.
Holland, who currently serves as a trustee on the Sonora Union High School District board, remained in first place after the final round of results were released Tuesday night, with 881 votes, or about 35%.
A candidate must get at least one vote above 50% in order to win the seat outright in the primary.
“I will continue to talk about the priorities I’ve laid out previously,” Holland said of his plans between now and November. “I think we need to work on the situation for the roads, homeless, fiscal responsibility, and streamlining the building process to get affordable housing. As a county, we prosper so much more, the more homeowners we have.”
If District 1 results continue trending as they did Tuesday night, Plummer would be the second-place finisher and Holland’s opponent in the runoff in November. Plummer had 745 votes, or about 30%, while Hawkins had 658 votes, or 26%.
Tanya Carsner, a retail manager and political newcomer, came in a distant fourth place, with 216 votes, or about 9%.
“I am optimistic,” Plummer said. “I’ve had visits from several current supervisors, which is nice, and I’m sure looking forward to working with them, but it’s a long way to go.”
There was no incumbent in the race because the current District 1 supervisor, David Goldemberg, decided to not seek reelection and will retire when his first term ends in January.
According to unofficial county election results as of 10:05 p.m. Tuesday, Segerstrom was the frontrunner in a four-candidate race that will see three victors.
Repeating her top votegetter status the first time she ran for City Council in 2020, Segerstrom was leading the council race, with 594 votes, or about 30% of the total votes cast.
“I really appreciate and value all of my supporters and people who have confidence in me to be a leader in city government,” Segerstrom said, speaking from an election results gathering at NOX Coffee on North Washington Street. “It’s not anything I ever dreamed that I would be doing with my retirement, but I feel invested in the City of Sonora.”
She said she feels engaged, and she wants Sonora residents to have “that same optimistic and progressive feeling that the city is on a good path, and the next four years it will only be on a better path. It’s reassuring that they’ve put their confidence in me and I’m thrilled.”
Opie was in second place, with 540 votes for about 28% of the total; Levine was third, with 472 votes, or about 24%; and Darren Duez, a former member of the city’s disbanded Social Equity Committee, was last, with 348 votes, or about 18%.
Opie said Wednesday he’s learned a bit about how Sonora city government works from his time as a city planning commissioner, and he feels ready to join the council if results continue to keep him among the top three votegetters in the council race.
“The biggest thing I’m worried about is moving forward in a manner that benefits everyone in Sonora,” Opie said. “Even if I end up losing, as long as that is the agenda moving forward, I am very happy.”
Levine said Wednesday she was feeling hopeful about the city council results so far, and she looks forward to seeing the final numbers.
Duez said in a phone interview just after 10 p.m. Tuesday the council race appeared undecided, but he congratulated the eventual winners, and said he hopes they do a good job for the City of Sonora.
“I think undervoting hurt,” Duez said. “A lot of people chose only one or two candidates. The undervote is at 1,207 votes right now.”
Registered voters in Sonora were allowed to vote for as many as three candidates in the City Council race. As of late Tuesday with 1,056 total ballots cast in the council race, if every voter had voted for three candidates there would have been a total of 3,168 votes for council candidates. The 1,214 undervotes represented more than onethird of the potential total.
As of the final election update Tuesday night, Tuolumne County voters had cast 13,756 ballots, representing 39.44% of the county’s 34,877 registered voters. That far exceeded the statewide turnout, which Bautista said was at 21.62% as of 12 p.m. Wednesday. A California Secretary of State elections page showed statewide turnout at 18% as of 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Of the state’s 58 counties, the only other counties that exceeded Tuolumne County’s turnout were Sierra County with 49%, Amador County with 44%, and Mariposa County with 43%.