Ballot Count Winding Down: Only Fullerton Council Still Too Close To Call

The last time the Registrar of Voters updated their remaining ballots to count list at the district level was November 13th. The past few days of counting has narrowed the lists of contests that are too close to call to one, the Fullerton City Council. After taking a four vote lead on Wednesday over incumbent Travis Kiger, Jan Flory lost ground and now trails Kiger by two votes. The current tally is Travis Kiger 12,703 and Jan Flory 12,701. My guess is that this race will end up being the focus of a recount once the final numbers are in.

The other races we identified as too close to call have now settled to the point that a change in position is unlikely to change.

Yesterday the 65th Assembly race was called, making Sharon Quirk-Silva the first Assembly member to represent the newly drawn district. Current tally sits at 65,804 for Quirk-Silva and 61,806 for Norby.

In the Rancho Santiago Community College District-Area 1 contest, it looks like Claudia Alvarez was successful in her bid to unseat the two incumbent trustees. The contest narrowed to one between Alvarez and Mark McLoughlin but the remaining distance between the two seems unlikley to shift the numbers in Mcloughlin’s favor. As of yesterday, Alvarez had 6,104 votes to McLoughlin’s 5,585.

In the Costa Mesa contest, the political life of Leprechaun Councilman Gary Monahan seems to have been spared by the voters. The ballots remaining to be counted are unlikely to give John Stephens a chance to take the lead. Current count is Monahan 13,771 to Stephens 13,639.

Finally in Westminster it looks like incumbent Councilman Tyler Diep isn’t going to find a surge big enough to overcome Diana Carey’s lead. The current tally sits at Carey 8,484 and Diep 8,283. When Tyler Diep was elected four years ago his name was Trung Diep. Maybe the voters of Westminster thought he had become someone else. It must be really hard for Tyler to imagine how his colleague Andy Quach could have won reelection two years ago, after a DUI conviction, and he cannot garner enough support to come in third place. Note to elected officials, don’t change your name after being elected.

I expect that the Registrar of Voters will probably wrap things up today.