An estimated 62 percent of San Benito County’s registered voters
cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election, which elections official Joe
Paul Gonzalez dubbed a pleasant surprise in a year when he expected
a 55 percent turnout
– well above the 45.2 percent local turnout during the June
primary.
An estimated 62 percent of San Benito County’s registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election, which elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez dubbed a pleasant surprise in a year when he expected a 55 percent turnout – well above the 45.2 percent local turnout during the June primary.
“I think the local races really brought them out, which is great,” he said on the morning after Tuesday’s election, as more than 3,000 ballots remained to be counted. “We had a push on Monday and Tuesday, and we were processing vote-by-mail ballots as fast as we could to get them ready for counting,” he said. “We added extra staff for that.”
As of mid-week, Gonzalez said roughly 2,800 absentee ballots and 450 to 500 provisional ballots were still being processed, though he anticipated that the uncounted ballots were not likely to change the results of most races.
“It’s possible that the District 2 Hollister City Council race might change,” he said. “The difference between the top vote getter (Sergio Montanez) and the second position candidate (Robert Scattini) is only 14 votes (as of Wednesday morning). That’s a close one. People are going to be watching that one.”
He said the District 3 council race between incumbent and Jovenes de Antano Director Pauline Valdivia and record company owner/medical marijuana dispensary operator Scott McPhail was likely already decided in Valdivia’s favor. She held a 35 percent lead with all precincts reporting.
Of the other local races, such as the Hollister School District and San Benito High School Board of Trustees contests, he said “it’s possible, but not probable that they would change.” There was “no chance” that the Gavilan College trustees results would be different than what was reported at the end of election night, with newspaper circulation manager Walter Glines winning the District 1 race and incumbent Kent Child and retired Gavilan instructor Tony Ruiz taking the two District 3 seats, beating out incumbent and Hollister attorney Elvira Zaragoza Robinson and challenger Stelvio Locci, who teaches at Hartnell College.
Updated results were expected to be released by 4 p.m. Friday, Gonzales said, with absentee ballots counted by then. The provisional ballots, those marked incorrectly so that tallying machines could count them, have to be reviewed by hand and were not expected to be finalized until next week.
In the five-person race for three spots on the SBHS board, incumbents Bill Tiffany – a local attorney – and retired high school teacher Mary Encinias were heading toward re-election at mid week, with retired high school principal Tim Shellito also garnering enough votes for a spot on the board as of Wednesday. Incumbent and former SBHS administrator Steve DeLay was in fourth, with Guille Reynoso in fifth.
Eight candidates were seeking three spots on the Hollister School District Board of Trustees. With all precincts reporting, but with absentee and provisional ballots still to count, Michael Query, Joe Navarro and Elsa Rodriguez were leading the field at mid-week.
The race for three spots on the San Juan Bautista City Council showed Jolene Cosio, Tony Boch and incumbent Andy Moore leading Jeffrey Bagley, while a close race for three Aromas Water District seats showed Bonnie Mahler, Sylvia J. Borchard and Stuart Cardott ahead of Marcus Dutra at mid-week.
In the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, Magdalena Medina and Jeffrey Howard Hancock were leading Lou Fiori for two, four-year spots on the board, while Bill Hunter was leading in the race for one two-year term.
The $9.7 million bond that would help the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District shore up facilities, replace computers and expand Internet access for students sailed to victory on Tuesday.
The bond, known as Measure Z, is designed help students and teachers focus on learning by focusing on “critical facility improvements” at the district’s four schools — Aromas School, San Juan School, Anzar High School and the Tom Connolly Mi Escuelita Preschool.
The bond, which required 55 percent of the vote to pass, won 66 percent of the vote in Santa Cruz County, 61 percent in San Benito County and 52 percent in Monterey County. A total of 1,225 votes were cast in support of the measure.
The money would also be used to pay off an outstanding facilities loan of $1.9 million.
In the Southside School District, Bob Tiffany and Scott Gilbert were leading Jeanne Liem and Wallace Jones for two seats as of Wednesday, while in the Willow Grove Union School District, Carole Greenwald-Aldrich and Joe Van Order were ahead of Sandy Patterson in the race for two seats.
Wire services contributed to this report.
