The riverside County Registrar of Voters has the reported the initial result of the 250,000 vote-by-mail ballots that were received before today.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney had 52.5 percent of the vote compared to President Barack Obama’s 45.8 percent.

In local races, Republican congresswoman Mary Bono Mack had a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Dr. Raul Ruiz. They separated by only 1,029 votes out of 99,029 cast.

In Riverside County, Assemblyman Brian Jones had two-thirds of the early vote compared to his challenger Democrat Patrick Hurley.

In the Hemet Unified School District race, the early leaders were challenger Jim Smith and incumbents Lisa DeForest and Marilyn Forst. Also at this point, Measure U, which would refinance the district’s borrowing power, was passing nearly 2-1.

In the state propositions educational funding, Riverside County voters were opposing both proposition 30 and 38. Statewide with 14 percent of the precincts reporting, both trailed, but Prop 30 was losing 52 percent to 48 percent, while Prop 38 was much further behind.

In other propositions, 32 — political contributions — was narrowly losing statewide, but 54.5 percent of Riverside County voters had cast “Yes”. Prop 33 (auto insurance) was similar.

The change in the death penalty (Prop 34) is finding little support in Riverside County or statewide. But changes to the “Three Strikes” law were being supported at both levels.

Prop 35 (Human trafficking) is winning every where, but Prop 37 (Genetically engineered food labeling) is trailing substantially at both levels. Prop 39 (business tax for clean energy) is winning and voters are rejecting Prop 40 which would re-initiate redistricting.