County Registrar-Recorder releases second-to-last post-election update
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk released its second to last post-election results update, adding 3,370 ballots for a cumulative total of 2,455,024 ballots — with no major changes in the Santa Clarita Valley’s tightly contested races.
Tuesday’s update seemed to solidify Democratic challenger Pilar Schiavo’s lead over incumbent Assemblywoman Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, in the tightly contested race for the 40th Assembly District. Schiavo’s lead grew slightly and now 545 ballots separate the two candidates. Tuesday’s returns showed Schiavo received 50.17% (79,794) of the votes and Valladares trailed behind with 49.83% (79,249) of the votes.
In one of the closer local races, challenger Donna Robert leads the race to represent the Newhall School District’s Trustee Area No. 1 by just 14 votes over incumbent Brian Walters. Robert has received 50.17% (2,026) of the votes while Walters has received 49.83% (2,012) of the votes.
Though Schiavo and Robert led in their respective races, there is a small but unknown number of ballots in those races remaining to be counted. The county reported Tuesday there are just 11,405 ballots remaining in the entire county.
The results of most other SCV races appeared to be no longer in doubt.
Democratic challenger Christy Smith conceded to incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, in the race for the 27th Congressional District, which secured a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
Incumbents Bill Miranda, Laurene Weste and Marsha McLean have secure leads for their re-election to the Santa Clarita City Council. In the William S. Hart Union High School District, incumbents Bob Jensen, Cherise Moore and Joe Messina also solidly lead in their respective races for re-election.
In the Saugus Union School District, Cassandra Love remained in the lead over Jesus Henao, with 52.29% (2,979) of the votes and 47.71% (2,718) of the votes, respectively, to see who’ll represent Trustee Area No. 1 on the governing board.
Anna Greise led over incumbent Laura Arrowsmith in the race to represent Trustee Area No. 2. Arrowsmith’s name appeared on the ballot, but she dropped out of the race in September because she moved out of the trustee area.
In the race to represent Trustee Area No. 5, incumbent Christopher Trunkey has received 51.60% (3,178) of the votes while his opponent Sharlene Duzick has received 48.40% (2,981) of the votes.
In the Newhall School District’s Trustee Area No. 2 race, Rachelle Haddoak leads with 53.66% (2,807) of the votes over Suverna Mistry, who has received 46.34% (2,424) of the votes.
Maureen Burk leads in the race to represent Trustee Area E in the Castaic Union School District over opponent Tracy Ford with 62.08% (673) of the votes and 37.92% (411) of the votes, respectively.
Bill Cooper and Dirk Marks solidly lead in their runs to represent Division 1 and Division 2, respectively, for three open seats on the SCV Water Agency’s board of directors.
Maria Gutzeit leads her opponent Lynne Plambeck to represent Division 3 on the board with 51.49% (13,619) of the votes and 48.51% (12,830) of the votes, respectively.
Next Update
According to the Registrar-Recorder’s Office, Tuesday’s additional voting resulted included 3,370 ballots for a total of 2,455,024 ballots processed and counted, which is 43.62% of registered voters. A total of 11,405 ballots remain outstanding.
The next ballot count update is scheduled Friday, and the Registrar-Recorder’s Office is slated to certify the election results on Monday, Dec. 5.
For graphics showing all of the updated tallies as of Tuesday’s update, go to signalscv.com/2022/11/election-2022-results.
