Almost all election winners determined

As of Tuesday morning, Nov. 15, in Riverside County about 94,000 ballots from Election Day Nov. 8 remain to be counted. About 10,000 of these ballots are provisional. Based on total ballots already counted and the uncounted ballots, turnout in Riverside County appears to have been about 41%.

While the leaders from election night have changed in some races, since Thursday the leaders have remained the same.

Local representatives

The local Congressional race for District 41, which includes the Hill neighborhoods, had national implications. After the initial ballot count Tuesday night, Democratic challenger Will Rollins had a 9,000-vote lead over incumbent U.S Rep. Ken Calvert. By Thursday morning, Calvert had taken the lead from Rollins and it has slowly but steadily grown. With about 177,000 votes cast, Calvert’s lead is about 5,500 votes or 51.6% of the counted votes.

After Monday night’s vote totals were posted, the Associated Press called the race for Calvert. Earlier in the evening, Calvert had issued his own victory press release, saying, “I want to thank the Riverside County voters for once again choosing me to be their voice in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

And later that night, Tom Emmer, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a concurrence, “Congratulations to Ken Calvert on his reelection. Californians know Ken is an experienced leader who will always fight for them. I look forward to our continued work together.”

Prior to the release of Monday evening’s totals, Rollins’ team said they “remained optimistic.” With thousands of ballots still to be counted, they are expecting these to be dominated by Democratic and Independent voters who favored Rollins.

In this district, the number of registered voters is 463,351 and turnout, based on ballots counted, has been about 39%. Total county turnout appears to be about 41%, including the uncounted balances.

This was a very competitive race. Both candidates collected more than $3.3 million in contributions by Oct. 19. Data for the weeks leading up to Election Day have yet to be reported.

Which party will have a majority of seats in the 118th Congress was still undecided as of Monday morning, so the results of California’s 41st District are likely to help Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives.

This attention was manifest when the House Committee on Administration sent several staff to observe the ballot counting.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California is the committee’s chairperson and said in her Nov. 9 letter to Riverside County Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer, that the observers were only to collect information in case there might be a challenge to the results that the full House would have to consider.

Caution was raised before Nov. 8 when Jason Gagnon of Calvert’s staff contacted the committee. “Prior to Election Day, our office indicated to the Minority Staff of the House Administration Committee that we were interested in having someone from the House Election Observer Program present during the canvass here in Riverside County. The House of Representatives holds the final constitutional authority to determine the winner of the election of its members, so it is vital that the Committee of jurisdiction has the facts and information necessary to ensure the integrity of this election.”

The local State Assembly seat race is still close and a winner has not yet been declared. Christy Holstege, the Democratic candidate for 47th State Assembly District, continued to lead her Republican opponent, Greg Wallis.

Within Riverside County, she has a 10,230-vote lead with nearly 105,240 counted. But the San Bernardino portion of the district, which is about 30% of the total district voters, is strongly supporting Wallis. In total, Holstege’s lead is 4,119 votes. Her districtwide vote total is 66,140 or 51.6%.

In Riverside County, the total ballots counted is about 44% of registered voters. Of the remaining uncounted ballots, it is unknown how many are from this Assembly district.

In other state legislative races, Eduardo Garcia, the Democratic Assemblyman, maintains a significant lead over his Republican opponent Ian Weeks for the District 36 seat, which includes Garner Valley.

Garcia’s total districtwide vote count is 54.7%. Within the entire district his lead is about 6,060 votes over Weeks. Within just Riverside County, Garcia and Weeks are much closer. Only 1,067 votes separate Weeks from Garcia. In 2018, 63,000 votes were cast in Garcia’s district. This year, already 67,422 have been counted with more to be counted.

The first announcement of the votes counted for the 32nd State Senate District had Republican Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto leading Democrat Brian Nash. Since election night, Seyarto has continued to build on his lead. As of Tuesday morning, he had 61.3% (about 130,550 votes) out of nearly 211,000 votes counted in the four counties which comprise the district.

Riverside County makes up about 80% of the district, which includes portions of Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino counties.

As more votes have been counted, the status of the race for Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) commissioner remains unchanged from election night. With 984 votes counted for the three IFPD seats, challenger Stephanie Yost is still first, followed by incumbents Rhonda Andrewson and Dan Messina. Commission President Henry Sawicki trails Messina by 38 votes for the third seat and may be upset.

As of Tuesday morning, the turnout is 53.1%. In 2020, a presidential election, turnout for the last IFPD commission race was 92%. In that election, another newcomer, Christina Reitz, was elected commissioner

In the Hemet Unified School District race for District 7, which includes the Hill communities, former law enforcement officer Jeremy Parsons leads incumbent Megan Haley and challenger Al Fernandes. Parsons has a 383-vote lead over Haley with about 4,700 ballots counted.

In the only Riverside County office race, challenger Brian Benoit has expanded his lead over incumbent Paul Angulo. On Tuesday morning, Benoit had 54% of the vote and a 29,368 lead over Angulo (46%).

Earlier in the day, Benoit issued a press release acknowledging his victory. “While there are still ballots that must be processed, the current results show that we are leading with a large enough margin to officially declare victory,” he said in the release.

In the race for 5th District supervisor, incumbent and board President Jeff Hewitt still trails his challenger Yxstian Gutierrez, Moreno Valley mayor, by 5,600 votes with 79,900 counted, about 31.5% of registered voters in the district.

Statewide

It appears the Democrats swept the statewide races. Every Democratic candidate from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials, including U.S. Senate, are still ahead. With the exception of Malia M. Cohen, Democrat for controller, all of the Democratic statewide candidates have garnered at least 58% of the vote. Cohen, with a near 597,000-vote lead, had 54.7% of vote in her race.

So, Newsom, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Treasurer Fiona Ma and Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara were all re-elected. Incumbent Tony K. Thurmond will continue as superintendent of Public Instruction.

And Sen. Alex Padilla won his election to finish the term of former senator, Vice President Kamala Harris, and won his reelection for a full term beginning in January.

However, in Riverside County, the majority of voters favored the Republican candidate in all but one of these races. The lone Democrat currently getting a majority (by only 100 votes) of Riverside County votes is Padilla. The Republican advantage in Riverside County will not be nearly sufficient to offset statewide results.

Propositions

The most recent statewide vote counts have not changed the results for the propositions on the ballot. Three (Props 1, 28, and 31) appear headed for approval and four (26, 27, 29 and 30) are losing.

California voters overwhelming declined Prop 27, the online sports wagering measure. So far, 83.2% of voters chose “No” for Prop 27. Its companion, Prop 26, the sports wagering on Tribal lands, garnering only 69.5% “No” votes, also appears defeated.

Prop 29, the kidney dialysis proposition, could only capture support from 30.4% of voters, the third consecutive defeat for a dialysis measure.

Prop 1, the reproductive freedom amendment to the state Constitution, received a “Yes” from 65.8% of voters. Both Prop 31, prohibition on sale of flavored tobacco products, and Prop 28, directing more funding to art and music education in schools, each garnered slightly more than 62% support.

The closest proposition contest is Prop 30, the tax on high incomes to fund zero emission vehicles, is trailing with 58.6% opposed.