Former District 2 Hollister City Councilman Robert Scattini has
extended his lead in the race against newcomer Sergio Montanez,
with a margin of 25 votes and just 500 countywide ballots left to
tally.
Former District 2 Hollister City Councilman Robert Scattini has extended his lead in the race against newcomer Sergio Montanez, with a margin of 25 votes and just 500 countywide ballots left to tally.
The San Benito County Elections Office on Monday finished counting the 2,800 mail-in ballots that had remained after Election Day, while there are another 500 or so provisional ballots to be tallied. Elections officials, meanwhile, expect about half of the provisionals to get tossed aside due to ineligibility issues.
Scattini after Election Day trailed Montanez by 14 votes, but jumped out to a 10-vote lead after half of the leftover mail-in ballots were counted by the elections office late last week. With an advantage of 37 percent to 34.6 percent this late in the counting – or 391 votes to 366 – it appears unlikely at this point Montanez can make up the difference.
A third candidate in the race faces an insurmountable disadvantage at this point, as Estevan Guzman had 293 votes and 27.7 percent, according to the results. The three residents are vying to succeed Councilwoman Eugenia Sanchez, who declined to run for reelection, in representing the west side.
Head elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez expects to have the 500 provisional ballots done by Friday.
In other relatively close races, Jerry Muenzer has maintained a comfortable lead over Phil Fortino in the contest for District 4 supervisor representing south county. With the few ballots remaining, Muenzer had 2,126 votes to 2,026 for Fortino, or a margin of 51 percent to 48.6 percent, according to the latest figures.
In the other council race on last week’s ballot, incumbent Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia dominated challenger Scott McPhail by taking 68.9 percent of the vote in District 2 representing the south-central side.
In the only contested countywide race, it looks as though Watsonville police Lt. Darren Thompson will end up winning by about 15 percentage points – a substantial victory considering opponent Pat Turturici had the most votes and a 22-point margin after the June primary.
