Former Hollister City Manager William B. Avera has narrowly pulled ahead of incumbent Dolores Morales for the City Council district 3 seat in the latest election results update.
Avera, with 723 of the counted votes in the Nov. 3 election so far, now leads Morales by six ballots, according to results posted 6:51pm Nov. 5 by the San Benito County Elections office.
The unofficial results are still a partial tally, as election officials still have to count more than 12,000 vote-by-mail ballots.
Other City of Hollister races and the election for San Benito County District 5 Supervisor remain close, though no additional lead changes have been posted since the first wave of results were posted on election night.
For Mayor of Hollister, former Councilmember Tim Burns remains in the lead ahead of Tina Garza, 2,431 votes to 2,397, according to the county election site. Candidate Scott McPhail trails in the mayoral election with 629 of the counted votes.
In the race for Council District 2, Brian Chavez holds the lead with 556 votes, or 52.11% of the counted ballots. Trailing Chavez is Frida Benjamin with 511 votes.
In the election for Hollister City Treasurer, Jonathan Casey retains a commanding lead over incumbent Gordon Machado, with 57.45% of the votes counted so far.
Former County Supervisor Ignacio Velazquez, who was removed from office by voters in the June 2 election, remains in the lead in the three-way Nov. 3 race for Supervisor District 5. Velazquez has 37.92% of the counted ballots, followed by Rodney Bianchi with 33.75% and John Williams with 28.33% of the tally so far.
In the race for three seats on the San Juan Bautista City Council, Eduardo Guaracha leads the vote count with 32.78%, followed by Elise Brentnall (27.53%) and incumbent Jackie Morris-Lopez (26.1%). Leslie Q. Jordan, also an incumbent, has garnered 13.59% of the counted votes, according to election officials.
Election officials with the San Benito County Registrar’s office have counted 10,506 ballots so far. There are 40,019 registered voters in the county.
