Kern Elections Division: Tens of thousands more ballots counted, about 72,000 to go

Nov. 11—The Kern County Elections Division released its first big batch of returns since its election night count Friday afternoon.

While at least an additional 30,000 ballots have been added to the total number of votes processed by county officials, many of the outcomes on significant decisions that voters faced, such as the sales tax, the term limits and even most close races, remain largely unchanged so far.

Mary Bedard, the auditor, controller and clerk for Kern County, said the next update would be posted to KernVote.com on Tuesday. As of Friday afternoon, Bedard said there are still 72,428 votes that are not yet counted.

Congress

In the two congressional races in Kern County, both Republican candidates are still leading overall.

The potential future House speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has more than doubled the vote total of Democratic challenger Marisa Wood in the 20th Congressional District race, leading 67.4 percent to 32.6 percent, according to the California secretary of state's website. He had a similarly sizable advantage in Kern, leading with 37,889 (68.21) votes to Wood's 17,661 (31.79).

In the 22nd Congressional District, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, leads Assemblyman Rudy Salas 54.2 percent to 45.8 percent, despite Salas leading the Kern tally with 52.58 percent of the vote as of Friday afternoon.

Legislature

In the statehouse, Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, maintained her significant lead over Democratic challenger Susanne Gundy in the 12th District with 68.1 percent of the vote as of Friday's update. In the 16th State Senate District race, Republican challenger David Shepard led overall in the four-county race with 53.5 percent (38,893 votes) to 46.5 percent (33,864) for Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger. Hurtado led in Kern with 58.4 percent of that vote.

For the only Assembly district that resides solely in Kern, Jasmeet Bains widened her lead somewhat over county Supervisor Leticia Perez by a margin of 59.44 percent to 40.56 percent. In this race, KernVote.com had more votes tallied (27,760) as of Friday afternoon than were recorded on the secretary of state's website (18,382).

Local ballot measures

The results for the two biggest initiatives in Kern County, a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase and a two-term limit for county supervisors, have remained unchanged with the updates, although the margins have changed.

Measure K, a levy expected to generate about $54 million a year for public safety and vital services, was supported by 54 percent of residents in unincorporated areas as of Wednesday, and saw that margin slip to 51.4 percent by Friday. The number of votes counted has gone from about 12,000 counted as of Wednesday to just over 31,000 as of Friday.

The supervisor term-limit measure went from 73.55 percent approval down to 70.27 percent as of Friday. In that vote, which was countywide, 86,450 votes have been tallied so far.

For Measure L, the decision over whether to amend the city's charter to allow for a police or fire chief to be hired from outside their respective city departments, 52.03 percent of voters were in favor and 47.97 opposed, with more than 40,500 votes tallied as of Friday.

With tens of thousands of votes to be processed, two of the school bond measures have the state's required 55 percent threshold for support while two do not.

Voters supported the Kern High and Fruitvale school districts with 54.26 percent and 51.14 percent in favor, respectively. Edison and Panama-Buena Vista Union school districts have 60.11 percent support and 57.78 percent support, respectively.

County races

Perhaps one of the closest races in Kern is for the 3rd District supervisor's race. While the count has been tight since ballots were first released on Tuesday night, Jeff Flores has held a lead and continues to with 9,638 votes (51.26 percent), with Brian Smith close behind at 9,166 (48.74).

In the contest for Kern County Water Agency Director, Division 4, Eric Averett holds a commanding lead with 8,732 votes (64 percent), with Philip Cerro II in second with 4,763 (35.29).

City councils

As more results come in from the Kern elections office, some races for Bakersfield City Council are close to being callable, while others are not so certain.

Incumbents Eric Arias and Bob Smith, who represent wards 1 and 4, respectively, ran unopposed and won outright.

Meanwhile, in Ward 3, incumbent Ken Weir leads the race with 51.72 percent, or 3,206 votes. Boyd Binninger is in second with 33.59 percent, or 2,082 votes.

In Ward 7, Manpreet Kaur is ahead with 2,865 votes (54.99), compared with Tim Collins' 1,953 votes (37.49).

In the race for Arvin City Council, in which voters were asked to pick three candidates, Susana Reyes leads with 461 votes (35.99), with Donny Horton in second with 379 (29.59). Third place is closely contested as Cesar Moreno, with 224 votes (17.49), is barely ahead of Juan Murillo, who has 217 votes (16.94).

Kelly Kulifkoff leads the race for California City mayor with 602 (41.49) votes, with Jeanie O'Laughlin in second with 437 votes (30.12) and Joe Barragan in a close third with 412 (28.39) votes.

The California City council race remains close, with a 9 percent difference separating the entire line of candidates. Ronald Smith Jr. leads the pack with 491 votes (19.53), Kim Welling is in second with 418 (16.63) votes and Michael Kulikoff is right behind in third with 412 (16.39) votes. The California City treasurer race is uncontested, as Keith Middleton ran unopposed.

In the Delano City Council race, Liz Morris is in the lead with 1,221 votes (29.10) and Mario Nunez Jr. is in a close second with 1,178 (28.07).

In Maricopa, two city council races are underway — one for a full-term and another for short-term. In the full-term contest, in which voters are asked to pick two, Virgil Bell is in first with 64 votes (37.65) and Cory Morse nearly 3 percentage points behind with 59 votes (34.71). In the short-term, James Owens is ahead with 59 votes (56.73), compared to Crystal Harris, who has 45 votes (43.27).

The current numbers show that in the race for McFarland mayor, Saul Ayon has 374 votes (64.04), compared with Robert Gonzalez's 210 (35.96).

And in the race for McFarland City Council, in which voters were asked to pick two, Maria Perez has a three-vote lead with 256 ballots (27.56). In second, Anita Gonzalez has 253 ballots (27.23), Amador Ayon is in third with 242 votes (26.05) and Sally Tafoya is in fourth with 178 (19.16).

In the race for Ridgecrest's mayoral office, Eric Bruen has retained a significant lead over Thomas R. Wiknich with 2,172 votes (57.95).

Meanwhile, at Ridgecrest City Hall, the race for two council members is close. Loren Scott Hayman leads the pack with 30.5 percent of the vote. John Gormon has so far retained second with 1,716 votes (28.14) over Christopher Ellis, who has 1,623 (26.62).