LAKE COUNTY >>The Lake County Registrar of Voters reported that nearly 7,900 vote-by-mail ballots from last week’s primary election remain to be counted. This amounts nearly 47 percent of the total voter turnout and making some of the county’s races more uncertain.
Before the count began again on Monday, more than 1,800 votes need to be tallied in each of the tight Board of Supervisor elections in District 1 and 4, which as of last week appear to be heading to a runoff election in November.
“I guess we will have to sit and wait,” District 4 candidate Tina Scott said.
At last report, Scott and Lakeport City Councilman Martin Scheel are leading the vote share at 33.8 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively, while Lake County Chamber of Commerce President Ted Mandrones trails with 18.3 percent.
With 1,912 total votes to be counted, Mandrones is still in the hunt for a top two spot, that is, if Scott doesn’t win the election outright.
However, she will need about 1,310 of the remaining votes (68.5 percent) to reach the unofficial clinching number of 2,047.
“Hopefully they get it done before the 28 days, so we know what’s going to be happening,” Scott said.
Things are even more uncertain in District 1, where only about 60 votes separate third place Voris Brumfield from leader Monica Rosenthal.
Jose “Moke” Simon, who’s in second place with about 466 ballots, said he was surprised that the district had about 1,800 ballots remaining to count. Yet he’s still confident that the results will be in his favor.
“I’m excited to see the outcome,” Simon added. “Obviously, it’s going to change things.”
Changes, however, are least likely to be seen in the county’s two other races: District 5 Supervisor and Measure U in Kelseyville Unified School District.
Currently, Rob Brown (63.4 percent) and yes votes (61 percent) for the $24 million bond issuance lead by wide margins.
“If you look at the percentages, I think we are probably in pretty good shape,” KUSD Superintendent Dave McQueen said. “I have a hard time seeing all of the remaining ballots [1,753] being Nos.”
The registrar has until July 5 to finalize the results, including the overview of 833 provisional ballots which may not count.
The report also revealed that nearly 75 percent of those uncounted votes were received via mail by the election office between June 2 and Election Day, June 7, or turned in to one of the region’s 50 precincts during their operating hours. Along with the remaining 25 percent (including overseas/military ballots and those postmarked on June 7), this brings the unofficial total of absentee votes to 12,672— nearly 75 percent of 16,898 total ballots cast.
