Incumbents in the race for Santa Clarita City Council and the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board continued to lead the polls in Monday’s release of updated election results.
U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, remained in the lead by 8.76 percentage points in the race to represent the 27th Congressional District. Garcia’s lead fell slightly from Friday’s results.
The tightest local races were in the Newhall School District — where one pair of candidates were separated by just four votes as of Monday — and the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency, where Maria Gutzeit leads Lynne Plambeck by just 520 votes.
According to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Monday’s additional voting results added 191,312 ballots to the total returns reported previously, which brings the total up to 1,799,951 ballots counted. After Monday’s count, an estimated 655,300 ballots remained to be counted countywide. It remained unclear how many of those ballots applied to specific individual local races.
The Registrar-Recorder’s Office is slated to announce its next update of the preliminary election results on Tuesday between 4 and 5 p.m.
Santa Clarita City Council
Incumbents Bill Miranda, Laurene Weste and Marsha Mclean still held the three top spots as of Monday’s update.
Weste held the top spot in the race for City Council with 20% (25,515) of the votes. Miranda remained in second with 19.81% (25,276) of the votes, followed by McLean, in third, with 17.20% (21,942) of the votes.
Denise Lite, who is in fourth in the polls and has received 15.28% (19,494) of the votes, is trailing just behind McLean.
Jeffrey Malick held fifth place in the polls with 8.57% (10,940) of the votes, followed by Selina Thomas with 8.37% (10,674) of the votes, David Barlavi with 7.33% (9,353) of the votes, Douglas Fraser with 2.41% (3,071) of the votes and Kody Amour, who dropped out of the race in September, with 1.04% (1,330) of the vote.
27th Congressional District
In the race to represent the 27th Congressional District between Garcia and Democratic challenger Christy Smith, Monday’s update showed the gap between them narrowing slightly from Friday’s update.
Garcia’s initial lead grew from a narrow one — 51.8% to 48.2% on election night — to a larger one as the Registrar-Recorder’s Office counted ballots subsequent to the first numbers released. That gap has since narrowed with updates, but by small increments. As of Monday afternoon, Garcia had 54.38% (81,720) of the votes and Smith received 45.62% (68,553) of the votes, with an unknown number of ballots remaining to be counted.
William S. Hart Union High School District
In the race to represent Trustee Areas No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 on the governing board for the William S. Hart Union High School District, Monday’s returns continued to favor incumbents Bob Jensen, Cherise Moore and Joe Messina.
Jensen continued to hold his lead with 67.46% (9,012) of the votes over Andrew Taban, who has received 32.54% (4,348) of the vote, in the race for Trustee Area No. 2. Moore was in the same position as Jensen with 60.98% (5,350) of the votes over Teresa Todd, who has received 39.02% (3,424) of the votes, to represent Trustee Area No. 3.
In the race to represent Trustee Area No. 5, Messina has received 60.14% (9,819) of the votes and challenger Rebecca Hindman has received 39.86% (6,507) of the votes.
Saugus Union School District
In the Saugus district, Cassandra Love pulled ahead of her opponent Jesus Henao, with 52.45% (2,266) and 47.55% (2,054) of the votes, respectively, to see who’ll represent Trustee Area No. 1 on the governing board.
Anna Griese has received 57.29% (3,565) of the votes while incumbent Laura Arrowsmith has received 42.71% (2,658) of the votes in the race to represent Trustee Area No. 2. Arrowsmith’s name appeared on the election ballot, but she dropped out in September because she moved out of the trustee area.
In the race to represent Trustee Area No. 5, Monday’s returns showed incumbent Christopher Trunkey ahead of his opponent with 53.01% (2,490) of the votes against challenger Sharlene Duzick, who has received 46.99% (2,207) of the votes.
Newhall School District
As of Monday’s update, incumbent Brian Walters and challenger Donna Robert were just 0.14% or four votes apart in the race to represent Trustee Area No. 1 on the governing board.
Walters held 50.07% (1,522) of the votes, just ahead of Robert, who received 49.93% (1,518) of the votes.
In the race to represent Trustee Area No. 2, Rachelle Haddoak has received 53.60% (2,205) of the votes whereas Suverna Mistry received 46.40% (1,909) of the votes.
Castaic Union School District
Monday’s results indicated Mayreen Burk furthered her lead in the race to represent Trustee Area E over Tracy Ford. Burk has received 63.14% (531) of the votes while Ford received 36.86% (310) of the votes.
Sulphur Springs Union School and Santa Clarita Community College districts
In the Sulphur Springs Union School District and the Santa Clarita Community College district, candidates in these races ran unopposed.
Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency
In the race for three open seats on the SCV Water Agency’s board of directors, Monday’s update showed Bill Cooper and Dirk Marks continued to lead in the polls to represent Division 1 and Division 2, respectively.
Cooper had the top spot in the race to represent Division 1 with 64.78% (11,892) votes, followed by Nicole Wilson, who received 19.50% (3,579) of the votes, and Melissa Cantu with 15.72% (22,886) of the votes.
Marks continued to hold his lead as of Monday afternoon, with 56.20% (12,463) of the votes to represent Division 2, followed by Sage Rafferty with 30.90% (6,853) of the votes and Kathy Colley who received 12.90% (2,862) of the votes.
The race to represent Division 3 continued to be neck and neck, with Monday’s update showing Maria Gutzeit in the lead with 51.27% (10,460) of the vote while Lynne Plambeck trailed behind her with 48.73% (9,940) of the vote, with an unknown number of ballots remaining to be counted.
