Belt maintains lead over Guerrero by 101 votes in Visalia Unified Area 2 race
Thousands of Tulare County mail-in votes are still being counted one week following midterm elections, including Visalia Unified’s Area 2 race.
The battle between sitting Trustee Juan Guerrero and challenger Paul Belt has gone back and forth since election night after Guerrero initially took a razor-thin, four-vote lead. Belt quickly took control of the race election night with a small 10-vote lead.
Post-election results now show 101 votes separate the two candidates, with long-time incumbent Guerrero still trailing College of the Sequoias adjunct professor Belt.
Guerrero was elected to serve on the school board in 2001, 2005, 2013 and 2018, where he serves as board president. He has lived within the Visalia Unified school district since 1978 and is a grandfather to students within the district.
Belt is a grandfather to students within the Visalia Unified School District. He has been vocal during school board meetings, advocating for parental and student choice throughout the pandemic.
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The next batch of post-election results is scheduled to be released by the Tulare County Elections Office this Friday. The first daily canvass update, published Nov. 10, noted the mail-in ballots the elections office still needs to tabulate are upwards of 34,200.
California Law requires the election be certified by Dec. 8.
Lauren Jennings is a reporter for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow her on Twitter @lolojennings. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Challenger maintains lead over Guerrero in Visalia Unified Area 2 race
