Live coverage: High Desert election results show incumbents in leads
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The Daily Press plans to cover election results as they come in live starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday as well as updates from around the nation.
Check back here for election results, reactions and analysis of the 2022 midterm election in California.
Live polling results after 8 p.m.: San Bernardino County election results
California Election results: All California state propositions and state offices
National election results:: U.S. Senate and House of Representatives races
11 p.m. Tuesday: County measure too close to call
Measure EE, a symbolic measure that would allow the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to start the process of seceding from California, is narrowly passing.
With just more than 10% of precincts reporting at 10 p.m. Election Night, yes votes outpaced no votes 50.44% to 49.56%.
According to the Voter Information Guide for San Bernardino County, “The Measure asks voters for their opinion on whether they want San Bernardino County elected representatives to study and advocate for all options to obtain the county’s fair share of state funding, including secession from the State of California.”
More: San Bernardino County vote to secede from California too close to call
9 p.m. Tuesday: Mayor of Adelanto
In the race for Adelanto mayor, incumbent Mayor Gabriel Reyes took a big lead with 47.69% or 620 votes, followed by Councilwoman Stevevonna Evans, who captured 16.08% or 209 votes.
Former mayoral candidate Diana Esmeralda received 13.5% or 176 votes, Ronald Beard 12.1% or 157 votes and Monique Carrillo 10.6% or 138 votes.
8:45 p.m. Tuesday: City of Barstow
An election-night watch party for Barstow Mayor Pro Tem James Noble brought close to two-dozen people, including Councilman Tim Silva, at a popular local Mexican restaurant and bar Los Domingos. Hernandez, whose campaign is loosely aligned with Noble’s, stopped in briefly prior to the first results being released.
O’Brien told the Daily Press prior to the first wave of results that her campaign wasn’t hosting a watch party but that she “might get together with family a little later.” Peralta didn’t respond when asked about her election-night plans.
“I think it’s important to keep [Noble] there with his experience, and [Hernandez] has experience too,” Silva told the Daily Press. “I don’t know if [Peralta] and [O’Brien] are supported by the Mayor [Paul Courtney], I don’t know if that’s true or not, but we can’t go backwards as far as the mayor picking up the power he felt that he had.”
8:50 p.m. Tuesday: City of Barstow
Carmen Hernandez led Martha O’Brien by a vote split of 179-141 mail ballots (56%-44%) in the first batch of results released Tuesday night in the race for Barstow City Council District 1.
Hernandez, a Barstow Community College trustee and former councilwoman, has pitched voters on her decades in local government and activism with a platform of accountability and transparency. O’Brien, a licensed marriage and family therapist, has focused on meeting demands for higher pay from the Barstow Fire union, which has endorsed her, and being a “pro-business candidate” and “fiscal conservative.”
Terri Peralta led James Noble by a neck-and-neck margin of just one vote in the first batch of results for the Barstow City Council District 2 race, the split being 218-217 mail ballots.
Noble, a current councilman and the city’s appointed mayor pro tem, won his seat in 2018 and is the City Council’s Military Affairs Committee representative. Peralta was Barstow’s Parks and Rec superintendent for more than a decade until leaving in 2019. She has run on a platform similar to that of O’Brien with an endorsement from the Barstow Fire union, while Noble has pitched a cool-headed presence bridging gaps between City Hall and taxpayers.
A mail-ballot split of 779-615 (56%-44%) had Barstow voters on track in the first batch of results to reject Measure H, a proposal to reorganize the city’s elected government structure by ending its current system of four district-elected City Council members and one elected-at-large mayor, converting it to five district-elected members with a mayor appointed among those five.
Aaron Heldreth led Ben Rosenberg by a vote split of 255-126 mail ballots (67%-33%) in the first batch of results in the race for Barstow Unified School District Governing Board Area 4.
Rosenberg, a 12-year trustee and the school board’s current president, pitched proven experience improving BUSD through projects such as the establishment of a STEM academy and Barstow Fine Arts Academy. Heldreth, a second-time candidate who lost a 2020 bid against then-board president and now-City Councilwoman Barbara Rose, pitched a plan to expand BUSD with offerings such as a revamped bilingual program and a Future Farmers of America program.
Michael Shane Watson led Latrina L. Wallace by a vote split of 277-173 (62%-38%) in the first batch of results in the race for Barstow Unified School District Governing Board Area 5.
Watson, an incumbent who was appointed in January 2021 to replace Rose, sought his first true BUSD election victory on an endorsement from the Barstow teachers’ union and a platform of listening to parents. Wallace, a first-time candidate, ran on a pitch for change in K-12 schooling in Barstow based on equity for disadvantaged students and expanded school staffing.
8:30 p.m. Tuesday: City of Victorville
The first round of votes at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday showed incumbent Mayor Debra Jones taking a big lead over candidate Rafael Porras in the District 2 race.
Jones garnered 70.21% or 872 votes, while Porras grabbed 29.79% or 370 votes.
In the District 4 race, Lizet Angulo took home 53.62% or 845 votes, while Robert “Bob” Harriman grabbed 46.38% or 731 votes.
7:40 p.m. Tuesday: Wet weather may be dampening vote in High Desert
A daylong flow of on-and-off rain made for an unusually wet Election Day for the High Desert and potentially affected the volume of people casting day-of ballots at polling sites.
Ricardo Rodriguez, who helped facilitate the Barstow polling site of emergency-housing center New Hope Village on Tuesday, said this is his fourth Election Day as a poll worker. He said the flow of voters had been steady most of the day with around a few voters in the room at any one time, but “with the weather, it’s been a decline since 5 p.m.”
“A lot of mail ballots came in, people dropping off their mail ballots,” Rodriguez added, estimating that more than 100 such ballots had been dropped off at the New Hope Village polling place. He said his site was understaffed by three people Tuesday but “we made it through.” — Charlie McGee, Daily Press
7:15 p.m. Tuesday: A low-key governor's race nears its end
State Sen. Brian Dahle entered the governor's race late. But that didn't stop him from earning a right to take on Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom.
Dahle, a Republican from Bieber in Lassen County, fended off a field of 25 challengers in the June primary to get to Tuesday's showdown with Newsom.
Polls show Newsom had a huge lead on his challenger. FiveThirtyEight, for example, had Newsom up 59.6% to 38.7% in its latest poll.
Newsom survived a recall attempt last year driven by critics of his handling of the pandemic. More than 60% voted to keep him in office and that strong showing scared away any well-known Republican candidates from this year's election.
Dahle has campaigned on, among other things, what he says is Newsom's mishandling of the state's homeless crisis. Newsom hardly campaigned, instead using some of the tens of millions of dollars in his campaign account to pay for ads in other states on gun control, abortion rights and other issues as part of his attempt to reshape the national Democratic Party's message. — David Benda, Jessica Skropanic
6 p.m. Tuesday: Unusual things on the ballot across California
Sure, voters statewide were being asked to weigh in on whether to legalize sports gambling, protect abortion access, and who should be governor. But around the Golden State, there were a number of unusual questions facing local voters.
For example, in Ventura County's Port Hueneme, voters were being asked whether to change the name of their city to Hueneme Beach. Proponents of the change said it could boost tourism.
Some locals weren't convinced. Kevin Brannon, 43, said he voted to keep the name Port Hueneme, saying there are more important things the city can do to boost tourism, such as cleaning up the beach.
“I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze,” said Brannon, a fourth-generation Port Hueneme resident.
Voters in San Bernardino County will decide if they want their elected representatives to study whether the county is receiving a “fair share” of state funding and possibly explore breaking off or seceding from California.
In San Francisco, voters faced dueling propositions about whether to keep JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park car-free. In Santa Cruz, voters will decide whether to impose a tax on homes that largely sit empty during the year. Voters in Berkeley are also considering a similar measure. — Brian Varela and Julie Makinen, Desert Sun
5:40 p.m. Tuesday: What is turnout looking like in California?
Like in most states, voter turnout in midterm election years in California is lower than in presidential election years. For example, in the November 2020 election, when Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, voter turnout in California was 80.67%. Two years earlier, in 2018, when Gavin Newsom was elected governor, turnout was 64.54%
In June's primary election, about a third of the almost 22 million registered voters in California cast ballots, mostly by mail. Those 7,285,230 votes — 33% of registered voters — marked a new high for a Golden State gubernatorial primary, just above the 7,141,947 votes cast in June 2018.
But turnout in the 2022 primary was far below the 2021 gubernatorial recall election, when 12,892,578 — 58% of registered voters — cast ballots and Newsom saved his own job.
One thing is for sure: Even though ballots typically arrive at voters' homes weeks in advance, many voters wait until the last minute to send them in. For example, in Riverside County, as of Election Day, only about 22.3% of the more than 1.3 million ballots mailed out had been returned.
The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters said Monday that between ballots returned by mail and early voting, the turnout was already at 20.4%.
The San Diego County registrar said Sunday that more than 500,000 of 1.9 million ballots had already been returned, a turnout rate of 26.3%.
In Ventura County as of Monday, elections officials reported more than 143,000 of the county's nearly 506,000 registered voters had cast ballots in the midterm. By comparison, almost 225,000 voters had cast ballots one day before the governor's recall election in 2021. Nearly 325,000 had returned ballots one day before the November 2020 presidential election, which had record high 85.9% voter turnout. — Julie Makinen, Desert Sun
4:30 p.m. Tuesday: High Desert voters to decide on hotel taxes, election-rule changes
High Desert voters in several cities will vote on local measures with long-term effects.
Measure H asks if Barstow voters would like to reorganize the city’s elected government structure by ending its current system of four district-elected City Council members and one elected-at-large mayor, converting it to five district-elected members with a mayor appointed among those five.
Measure K asks if voters in the Town of Yucca Valley would like to raise the town’s “transient occupancy tax,” otherwise known as a rooms tax paid by those who stay in local hotels, motels and short-term vacation rentals, from the current rate of 7% to a new rate of 12%.
Transient occupancy tax is also the subject of Measure N in the City of Needles, asking if voters would like to expand the city’s existing room tax by applying it to short-term residential properties and rental units. — Charlie McGee, Daily Press
4:10 p.m. Tuesday: Donald Trump threatens Ron DeSantis (if he runs against him)
Donald Trump is all but threatening Ron DeSantis with personal attacks if the Florida governor decides to run against him for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
“If he runs, he runs,” Trump recently told a group of reporters, according to The Wall Street Journal. "If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”
DeSantis, who is expected to win re-election as governor on Tuesday, has not commented on Trump's jibes; he also hasn't said whether he is willing to run against Trump in 2024. — USA TODAY
Original story: 7 a.m. Tuesday: Voters in the High Desert will be asked on Tuesday to weigh in on races at the local, county, state and federal levels.
The Daily Press plans to cover election results as they come in live starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Ballots can be dropped into the mail or at polling locations. Voters can find a list of those locations at the San Bernardino Election Office website.
ICYMI: Daily Press's 2022 High Desert election coverage all in one place
High Desert races
Local races include city council and school board races in Adelanto, Hesperia, Barstow, Apple Valley and Victorville.
Voters will also weigh in on two countywide measures:
Measure D asks all San Bernardino County voters if the county charter should be amended to change the tax implementation process, place a ceiling on the salaries of elected county supervisors and revise the rules for term limits on supervisors.
Measure EE asks the electorate if they would or would not support the secession of San Bernardino County, the largest county by area in the U.S., from California, potentially to form its own state.
Live polling updates: San Bernardino County election results
This year, High Desert voters cast votes in new California State Assembly House of Representatives districts after boundaries were redrawn courtesy of the 2020 census.
At the State Assembly level:
A Republican-on-Republican battle pits two incumbent assemblymen, Thurston “Smitty” Smith, and Tom Lackey, in a runoff that stems from a tight outcome in the June primary election for the 34th Assembly District seat.
In a race for newly drawn State Assembly District 39, Democrat and Palmdale City Councilman Juan Carrillo faces off against Republican and former Victorville Planning Commissioner Paul Andre Marsh.
A third race for State Assembly District 41 pits incumbent Democrat Chris Holden against Republican challenger Michael McMahon.
For Congress:
Jay Obernolte, a Republican and the High Desert’s current U.S. House of Representatives member faces off against Democratic challenger Derek Marshall on the November ballot in a race for newly-drawn District 23.
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat currently representing District 27, and Republican challenger Wes Hallman in District 28.
Statewide races
Gov. Gavin Newsom faces his second challenger in the two years after trouncing Republican Larry Elder in a September 2021 recall effort. This year, Newsom faces Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle, who has pitched himself as a pragmatic counter to the “elitist Democrat” and “dictator” currently in office.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, faces Nathan Hochman on the November ballot. Bonta has held the job of top lawmaker in California since 2021, while Hochman seeks to become the first Republican to win the job since 2006.
Democrat and incumbent California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara faces state Assemblyman Marc Levine, also a Democrat, in a race to decide who will run the California Department of Insurance.
Statewide propositions
A number of statewide propositions are also on the ballot.
Proposition 1 is a pitch by California’s top Democrats to amend the state constitution with provisions making abortion a fundamental right in explicit language. The proposition, which passed both chambers of the state legislature in June on news of the U.S. Supreme Court’s plan to repeal Roe vs. Wade, would specifically bar the state from interfering with a person’s right to choose an abortion or contraceptives.
A look back: Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade draws praise, criticism from High Desert
Two propositions lay out a pitch to legalize sports gambling in different ways.
Proposition 26 would legalize sports gambling on an in-person basis only at casinos run by tribal governments and designated horse tracks. It would also allow tribes to offer dice-based gambling games such as roulette.
Separately, Proposition 27 would legalize sports gambling online but limit the providers of this Internet betting to certified gaming tribes and established companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel.
Related: 9 graphics show the state of sports betting and gambling in California
Proposition 28 would require California to set aside a share of its state revenue, potentially up to $1 billion per year, for the funding of arts and education classes with a specific focus on schools with a large number of low-income students.
Proposition 29 would impose a range of new regulations on dialysis clinics, a major one being that a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant must be present on-site at all such clinics during all treatment hours. It would also require that all centers publicly disclose any doctors who own at least a 5% stake in any such clinics, and that these centers must get state approval before closing or reducing services at any clinics.
Proposition 30 would create a new 1.75% income tax against any individual making more than $2 million a year for the purpose of funding greenhouse-gas reduction initiatives, chief among them being incentives for consumers to buy electric cars.
Proposition 31 is a chance for voters to reconsider a ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products in California that was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. A “yes” vote on this proposition would be to maintain the ban, while a “no” vote means getting rid of the ban on such tobacco products.
Election results: All California state propositions
Track your ballot
California voters can keep tabs on whether their ballots have been received by their county registrar of voters. To do so, you need to be signed up for the "Where's my ballot" system, also known as Ballottrax.
Go to WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov online, where you will be prompted for your name, date of birth and zip code. Just sign on, enter your contact info and select what notification methods and times work best for you. You can get alerts by text, email or phone call.
Signed up but haven't heard anything yet? The Secretary of State's office notes it could take 5 to 7 days for mailed ballots to be delivered to the registrar and processed. Also, check your spam folders!
Email notifications are sent from updates@caballottrax.com. Text notifications will come from 415-75. Voice call notifications will come from (916) 249-9883.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Live: Find out results from 2022 midterm elections in High Desert
