As of Friday morning, about 90 percent of the expected ballots from Tuesday’s Primary Election have been counted. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters has announced that there are about 20,000 more ballots to count, but further results will not be released until Friday evening.
St. Senate District 28
In the St. Senate District 28 race, a recount is a very likely possibility given the closeness of the race. The top two vote getters will face each other in the November General Election.
For the first time since vote counting began Tuesday evening, former Assembly member and Republican Bonnie Garcia is second to 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone.
Stone has the lead with 21.8 percent of the vote. The next three candidates are very close, Garcia has 19.6 percent of the vote is second. Republican Glenn Miller, with 19.5 percent, trails her by 102 votes. Democrat Phil Drucker has 18.8 percent.
A total of 86,063 votes were cast. While Stone leads Garcia by 1,843 votes, the separation between her and the fourth highest, Drucker, is only 717 votes.
It appears that Miller and Garcia split the desert Republican vote allowing Stone to take the western portion of the District. Drucker was second most of the night, but would be the underdog in the November race. However, if Garcia remains second, the question is how will Miller and Drucker’s supporters vote in November.
Turnout
So far, 178,361 votes have been counted. This represents about 20.1 percent of registered voters. Statewide 100 percent of all precincts have made initial vote reports. Slightly more than 3.4 million votes were cast in the Primary Election, which represents 19.2 percent of all registered voters.
For the June 2012 Presidential Primary Election turnout was 31 percent. In the 2010 Primary, 33 percent of registered voter cast ballots. Turnout has never been less than 20 percent since records have been kept starting in 1914.
As normal, while overall turnout was significantly less, about one-fourth, of the 2012 Presidential Election, Hill voters continued to surpass the countywide interest. Based just on early voting, the turnout in Idyllwild was 21.5 percent, Pine Cove 25.4 percent and 23.4 percent in Mountain Center.
Other races
In races of local interest, Mike Hestrin has a lead of about 15,900 votes over incumbent District Attorney Paul Zellerbach. Nearly 143,300 votes were cast for this office.
In the other contested countywide races, Sheriff Stan Sniff has garnered about 63 percent of the counted vote and leads his challenger Chad Bianco. County Superintendent of Schools Ken Young has a similar lead over his opponent Michael Scott.
In uncontested county races, Peter Aldana will be the next Assessor, county Clerk, Don Kent will return as Treasurer and Tax Collector and Paul Angulo will continue as Auditor/Controller.
In the Congressional District 36 race, incumbent U.S. Representative Dr. Raul Ruiz received 50 percent of the vote and St. Asssemblyman Brian Nestande is second with 34.6 percent. Ray Haynes trails with 15.2 percent. The Ruiz and Nestande will face each other in November.
The two propositions — 41 for a bond for veterans’ housing and 42 public records costs — received more than 60 percent of the Riverside vote and easily passed statewide.