Recently recalled former San Benito County Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez leads the early vote tally in the three-way race to complete his unexpired term.
Velazquez was recalled in a voter-initiated election in the June 2 primary. His removal added the remainder of his term, which expires in 2028, to the Nov. 3 ballot.
In Tuesday’s general election, Velazquez faced two candidates: Rodney Bianchi and John Williams. According to results posted by the county registrar’s office at 1:26am Nov. 4, Velazquez leads the District 5 race with 38.97%, or 456 votes. Bianchi trails with 32.65%, or 382 votes; and Williams has 28.38%, or 332 votes.
A total of 1,170 ballots have been counted in the District 5 election. Local election officials have counted about 7,400 ballots from the Nov. 3 election, with more than 16,000 remaining to be counted.
When contacted on Wednesday morning, Velazquez said he is “just waiting for votes to come in,” and has not yet declared victory.
“I’m happy so many voters in my district saw through this smear campaign,” Velazquez said of the recall and subsequent negative campaigning by his detractors.
In the June 2 primary, Velazquez was recalled by just 33 votes, with 1,312 voting “yes” to remove him from office.
