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By C. Jayden Smith
As South Orange County residents continue to await the full, official results from last week’s Midterm Elections, tallies from the Orange County Registrar of Voters indicate much more counting remains.
The Registrar’s website lists that an estimated total of 210,151 ballots have been processed after Election Day to date, and 175,862 remain as of Monday, Nov. 14. That figure includes 51,580 vote-by-mail ballots returned at vote centers, 1,110 vote-by-mail ballots received on or before Election Day, and 152 left from drop boxes.
The remaining ballots fall within multiple categories, including final drop box pickup ballots (90,000); eligible ballots received after Election Day (23,078); conditional voter registrations and provisional ballots (7,194); duplicated ballots (2,308); and remote accessible vote-by-mail ballots (440).
None of those ballots had been processed before the Registrar’s scheduled Monday update, according to the Registrar’s office. All figures regarding the number of ballots left to count are updated each weekday at 5 p.m.
Asked when voters could expect the results of the races to be more solidified—and unlikely to majorly change—Registrar Bob Page said in an email that he would not predict an exact day before the state of California’s required deadline for certification of Dec. 9.
As of Monday afternoon, incumbent Rep. Mike Levin was holding on to a 5.2% lead over Republican Brian Maryott in the race for California’s 49th Congressional District. Levin received 52.6% (128,071) of all votes cast in the district, while Maryott had 47.4% (115,434) of all votes.
Republican Assemblymember Janet Nguyen also maintained her significant lead over her Democratic opponent, Kim Carr, for the State Senate’s 36th District, which covers Dana Point and San Clemente.
Nguyen had 57.4% (158,471) of the votes, while, Carr, a Huntington Beach councilmember, had 42.6% (117,618).
In the 38th State Senate District, which includes the communities of San Juan Capistrano and Rancho Mission Viejo, Nguyen’s party-mate Matt Gunderson continued to trail Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, who reportedly had 52.1% (158,001) of the votes. Gunderson had 47.9% (145,095) of the votes.
As for the 74th State Assembly race, Incumbent Republican Laurie Davies still looked poised to hold on to her seat with 52.7% (76,299) of the votes, while her Democratic challenger and San Clemente Mayor Pro Tem Chris Duncan reportedly had 47.3% (68,480).
At the county level, incumbent Supervisor Katrina Foley has so far received 50.88% (99,263) of votes to represent the Fifth District, narrowly leading her Republican challenger, State Sen. Pat Bates, by less than two percentage points.
Victor Cabral (14.41%) and Mark Enmeier (13.43%) remained the top two contenders for the three open seats on San Clemente’s City Council, while incumbent Councilmember Steve Knoblock (13.22%) surpassed Donna Vidrine (12.74%) by 314 votes after trailing in the early days following the election.
In San Juan Capistrano, John Campbell has grabbed 50.02% (1,294) of votes to represent the city’s District 3 and leads by a wide margin over the other two candidates—Paul Lopez and Cody Martin.
As of Monday afternoon, Michael Parham held a roughly 5% lead on Kira Davis in the Capistrano Unified School District’s Board of Trustee Area 2 race, garnering 8,317 (45.5%) votes.
In CUSD’s Area 4 race, Gary Pritchard has maintained his lead over James Glantz and Darin Patel, earning 49.79% (8,373) of the votes. And in Area 7, incumbent Trustee Judy Bullockus led her race over Jeannette Contreras with 55.05% (9,292) of the votes.
San Clemente voters have leaned towards favoring measures U and V that would make the city’s positions of city clerk and city treasurer appointable by the City Council. Measure U, to transition the clerk position, is on track to pass with 52.89% voter approval, while Measure V to transition the treasurer role has narrow support with 50.69%.
County elections officials must report their final results to the Secretary of State by Dec. 9.
C. Jayden Smith
C. Jayden Smith graduated from Dana Hills High in 2018 before pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in digital and broadcast journalism from the University of North Texas. After graduating in December 2020, he reported for the Salina Journal in Salina, Kansas. Jayden loves college football and bothering his black lab named Shadow.
