Last night a technical glitch at the Registrar of Voters delayed the release of the updated ballot tallies for last week’s general election. Sharon Quirk-Silva expanded her lead over Assemblyman Chris Norby in the 65th Assembly district race to 2,996 votes. There are 11,424 ballots remaining to be counted; 2,584 vote-by-mail and 8,850 provisional’s.
Rancho Santiago Community College District Trustee Mark McLoughlin moved 44 votes closer to challenger Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez. With 2,012 ballots remaining Alvarez has 5,488 votes to McLoughlin’s 5,281. They are now separated by 207 votes.
In Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan picked up some votes widening the distance between himself and challenger John Stephens. Monahan now leads by 123 votes, 13,643 to 13,520. There are just 1,504 votes left to count. Stephens is going to have to dramatically pick up the pace if he’s going to catch Costa Mesa’s favorite leprechaun.
One of the most dramatic change in last night’s tallies was in the Fullerton City Council contest between Councilman Travis Kiger and Jan Flory. With 2,319 ballots remaining Kiger has 12,486 votes to Folry’s 12,430. Flory cut the gap between her and Kiger in half, to 56 votes.
The change in Fullerton was beat however by the Westminster City Council contest. Incumbent Councilman Tyler Diep benefited from the legendary late Vietnamese ballot surge to cut the distance between him and challenger Diana Carey from 696 to 310 votes. With 2,670 ballots remaining to be counted, Carey has 8,454 and Diep has 8,144 votes. Of the total ballots remaining in Westminster, only 605 are vote-by-mail and 2,065 are provisional ballots. The late Vietnamese surge has been attributed to vote-by-mail ballots being dropped off at the polls on election day. With more than 2,000 provisional ballots remaining, it is possible that Carey can hold on. but it’s going to be really close.