Dolores Morales appears headed to victory in the five-person race for Hollister City Council District 3, according to unofficial election results.
Morales has received 482 votes, or about 42% of the ballots counted so far in the Nov. 2 special election, says the San Benito County Registrar of Voters’ website. That’s 106 ballots more than the next candidate, Lauretta Avine, who has received 376 votes, or 33%. Following Avina are Silas Quintero with 145 votes (13%), Scott McPhail with 111 votes (10%) and Matthew Rojas with 23 votes (2%).
Morales, a program manager for Santa Clara County, sent her thanks to the voters after seeing the latest vote count, which was posted to the registrar’s site Nov. 4.
“I will work hard to earn residents’ trust and improve city services,” Morales said Friday.
Election officials only have seven ballots in their possession that are uncounted because the voters did not sign them, according to Assistant County Clerk Francisco Diaz. The elections office is in the process of contacting those voters to allow them to sign the ballots so they can be counted.
Diaz added that a small number of ballots may still arrive at county offices over the next week. If mail-in ballots are postmarked within seven days after the election, they can still be counted.
So far, 1,141 votes in the District 3 election have been counted. That’s about a 21% turnout in a district that has 5,418 registered voters.
The winner of the Nov. 2 balloting will complete the term of former Hollister City Council member Honor Spencer, who resigned earlier this year. The term ends December 2022.
