LAKE COUNTY ? The official results are in for the Nov. 4 general election. Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley certified the final numbers Tuesday evening, on the final day before the Dec. 2 deadline.
Results that were reported election night foretold the final outcomes of county and city races. Initial results also indicated which national candidates Lake County voters favored and how voters felt about 12 statewide initiatives. Fridley had 28 days from Nov. 4 to finish counting and recounting ballots, and to finalize the results.
“It was just very busy. The number of voters went up and the number of provisional ballots went up,” Fridley said.
Jim Comstock won the race for District 1 Supervisor with 52.8 percent of the vote. In the race for three seats on the Lakeport City Council, challenger Suzanne Lyons won 20.3 percent of the vote, followed by incumbents Robert Rumfelt and Roy Parmentier with 19.6 percent and 18.1 percent respectively. Judy Thein led the race for three open seats on the Clearlake City Council with 24.2 percent of the vote, followed by Joyce Overton with 20.3 percent and Curt Giambruno with 17.8 percent. All were elected.
Benjamin Ross Pearson was elected Yuba Community College District Trustee with 52.9 percent of the vote. In the race for two seats on the Middletown Unified School District Board, William Wright won 26.7 percent of the vote and Sandy Tucker won 22 percent. Mary Silva and Henry “Hank” Montgomery won the two open seats in the Konocti Unified School District Board race, with 26.7 percent and 22 percent respectively.
Fridley said 73.6 percent of Lake County”s voters participated in the November election, including approximately 3,000 new voters who registered since January. Fridley said in October that because 75 percent of the voters participated in the November 2004 presidential election, she had expected at least that much in this election. She noted that the number of ballots counted this year was up 2.9 percent from 2004.
Provisional ballots are issued to voters who move and need address information updated and to voters who lose or spoil an original ballot. There were 647 provisional ballots in this election, and Fridley said each one had to be inspected individually.
In addition, Fridley said the number of vote-by-mail ballots cast was up 25 percent from 2004, and represented 49.2 percent of the ballots cast in this election. Ballots cast at the polls represented 34.4 percent of the voters.
“It”s flipped. More people are voting by mail, from the comfort of their homes,” Fridley said.
For a complete listing of the election results, see the Friday edition of the Record-Bee.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
