A look at Tuesday's election

Robert Summa, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·7 min read

Jun. 9—Even though there are a large number of unprocessed ballots still waiting to be counted, the results of Tuesday's direct primary election are pretty clear.

With several contested races on the ballot for key positions within both Yuba and Sutter counties, voters had tough decisions to make about the future of the region. As of Wednesday, there were still thousands of unprocessed ballots.

"We have approximately 9,000 ballots unprocessed as of this afternoon. Half of those have been signature verified," Sutter County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Donna Johnston said in an email on Wednesday. "We have until June 10 to receive any ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and until July 7 to certify the election. The certification process includes an audit of the election results, which occurs after every election. We anticipate releasing another update on Friday afternoon, closer to the end of the workday."

Yuba County Clerk Donna Hillegass confirmed that her office also was working on 6,812 unprocessed ballots as of Wednesday night.

"We are required to accept ballots submitted by mail up to seven days after Election Day, provided they were postmarked on or before Election Day," Hillegass said in an email on Wednesday. "And voters have up to two days before the election is certified to 'cure' any issues with the signature on their ballot, such as missing signatures or signatures that don't compare to the one on file."

Hillegass said Yuba County election results "will be certified after the completion of canvass, which I estimate to be the week of June 20."

While there are still votes left to be counted, the results thus far are still fairly representative of what the official outcome will be.

A race that was in the spotlight for most area voters was Sutter County Board of Supervisors District Two. As of Wednesday, incumbent Dan Flores was beating Courtney Ortega to return to the position. Flores was leading Ortega with 55.65 percent of the vote to Ortega's 44.35 percent with 965 total votes cast.

Another closely watched race was for Sutter County District Attorney. As of Wednesday, incumbent Amanda Hopper was losing against Jennifer Dupre, a Butte County Supervising Deputy District Attorney. With the results reported so far, Dupre appeared to have secured the position. She was beating Hopper with 60.40 percent of the vote to Hopper's 39.60 percent. In total, 7,152 votes were cast in the race.

In Sutter County, a total of 7,583 votes were counted as of Wednesday. There are 52,266 total registered voters in the county.

For Yuba County, there were several contested races to be decided.

They included incumbent Andy Vasquez, Eric Mallow and Kristopher Kramer for Yuba County Board of Supervisors District One; Jon Messick, Zachary Cross and Bob Bagley for Yuba County Board of Supervisors District Five; Hillegass and Tambra Courtright for Yuba County Clerk; incumbent Francisco Reveles and Anna M. Meyerpeter-Newman for Yuba County Superintendent of Schools; and Brent Hastey and Wayne Bishop for Yuba Water Agency, South Division.

As of Wednesday, Vasquez was leading with 56.74 percent of the vote to Mallow's 27.37 percent and Kramer's 15.89 percent. Messick led his opponents with 66.67 percent of the vote, with Bagley getting 25.38 percent and Cross with 7.95 percent.

In the District One race, 749 total votes were counted as of Wednesday. In the District Five race, 1,635 total votes were counted.

In the Yuba County Clerk race, Hillegass had a commanding lead with 72.98 percent of the vote as of Wednesday to Courtright's 27.02 percent. A total of 4,622 votes were counted as of Wednesday.

For Yuba County Superintendent of Schools, Reveles was leading with 57.29 percent of the vote to Meyerpeter-Newman's 42.71 percent. A total of 4,509 votes were counted as of Wednesday.

In the Yuba Water Agency race, Bishop was leading incumbent Hastey with 63.94 percent of the vote to Hastey's 36.06 percent. A total of 2,002 votes were counted as of Wednesday.

In Yuba County, a total of 5,249 were counted as of Wednesday. There are 40,854 total registered voters in the county.

"Election Day had very low turnout and was pretty uneventful," Hillegass said. "Turnout for the Gubernatorial Primary is typically a lower turnout election, but it looks like this election will be lower than previous ones. I'll have a better idea of what our turnout looks like after we receive the mail today and get our unprocessed (ballots) counted."

Other contested races for Yuba and Sutter counties:

Sutter County

Governor

Gavin Newsom: 36.61 percent

Brian Dahle: 32.29 percent

Shawn Collins: 5.04 percent

Lieutenant Governor

Eleni Kounalakis: 33.57 percent

Angela E. Underwood Jacobs: 30.32 percent

David Fennell: 20.17 percent

Secretary of State

Shirley N. Weber: 39.06 percent

Rob Bernosky: 29.91 percent

Rachel Hamm: 13.98 percent

State Controller

Lanhee Chen: 53.45 percent

Yvonne Yiu: 14.19 percent

Steve Glazer: 12.90 percent

State Treasurer

Fiona Ma: 38.14 percent

Andrew Do: 30.68 percent

Jack M. Guerrero: 28.07 percent

Attorney General

Rob Bonta: 34.63 percent

Eric Early: 25.58 percent

Nathan Hochman: 23.69 percent

Insurance Commissioner

Greg Conlon: 36.90 percent

Ricardo Lara: 25.62 percent

Robert Howell: 17.95 percent

Board of Equalization District 1

Ted Gaines: 62.42 percent

Jose S. Altamirano: 19.79 percent

Braden Murphy: 9.84 percent

U.S. Senate (full term)

Alex Padilla: 36.91 percent

Mark P. Meuser: 15.25 percent

Chuck Smith: 12.78 percent

U.S. Senate (partial term)

Alex Padilla: 33.04 percent

Mark P. Meuser: 25.84 percent

James P. Bradley: 14.31 percent

U.S. House of Representatives District 1

Doug LaMalfa: 52.54 percent

Max Steiner: 33.28 percent

Tim Geist: 9.03 percent

State Assembly District 3

James Gallagher: 67.16 percent

David Leon Zink: 32.77 percent

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tony K. Thurmond: 32.11 percent

Lance Ray Christensen: 17.32 percent

Ainye E. Long: 14.30 percent

Yuba County

Governor

Gavin Newsom: 33.56 percent

Brian Dahle: 23.97 percent

Anthony Trimino: 7.02 percent

Lieutenant Governor

Eleni Kounalakis: 32.02 percent

Angela E. Underwood Jacobs: 26.52 percent

David Fennell: 21.62 percent

Secretary of State

Shirley N. Weber: 38.58 percent

Rachel Hamm: 21.45 percent

Rob Bernosky: 19.84 percent

State Controller

Lanhee Chen: 53.72 percent

Yvonne Yiu: 16.23 percent

Malia M. Cohen: 12.67 percent

State Treasurer

Fiona Ma: 37.96 percent

Jack M. Guerrero: 32.34 percent

Andrew Do: 26.75 percent

Attorney General

Rob Bonta: 33.71 percent

Eric Early: 31.04 percent

Nathan Hochman: 20.53 percent

Insurance Commissioner

Greg Conlon: 31.87 percent

Ricardo Lara: 23.17 percent

Robert Howell: 22.65 percent

Board of Equalization District 1

Ted Gaines: 62.65 percent

Jose S. Altamirano: 20.25 percent

Braden Murphy: 12.69 percent

U.S. Senate (full term)

Alex Padilla: 35.38 percent

Mark P. Meuser: 13.72 percent

Chuck Smith: 11.15 percent

U.S. Senate (partial term)

Alex Padilla: 31.38 percent

Mark P. Meuser: 23.16 percent

James P. Bradley: 17.78 percent

U.S. House of Representatives District 1

Doug LaMalfa: 45.00 percent

Max Steiner: 37.82 percent

Tim Geist: 11.70 percent

U.S. House of Representatives District 3

Kevin Kiley: 46.12 percent

Kermit Jones: 26.03 percent

Scott Jones: 22.29 percent

State Assembly District 3

James Gallagher: 65.25 percent

David Leon Zink: 34.69 percent

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tony K. Thurmond: 30.58 percent

Ainye E. Long: 15.28 percent

Jim Gibson: 13.82 percent