As of Saturday evening, Nov. 19, in Riverside County about 15,000 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, total turnout in Riverside County appears to have been about 44.9%. Turnout for each race could be different because some voters may leave that choice blank or more voters in that district cast a ballot.

For several days after the election, several races legislative races, which included the Hill neighborhoods, were very close. And the contest between Democrat Christy Holstege and Republican Greg Wallis for a state Assembly seat remains too close to call and may require a recount.

Local representatives

The state Assembly 47th District (AD 47) seat race is still close and a winner has not yet been declared. Holstege continued to lead Wallis.

But with nearly 166,481 ballots counted within the whole district, Holstege’s election night lead of nearly 10,000 votes has eroded to 97 votes as of Monday evening.

Within Riverside County, she has a 10,437-vote lead with nearly 132,000 counted. But the San Bernardino portion of the district, which is about 30% of the total district voters, is strongly supporting Wallis. In San Bernardino, where 37,480 ballots for AD 47 have been counted, Wallis has outpolled Hostege by 10,340.

As of Saturday, Riverside County has about 8,000 ballots to count, but they are not identified by precinct. San Bernardino County has about 12,300 ballots remaining.

Turnout in this district in both counties is about equal, 54.7% in Riverside and 53.6% in San Bernardino.

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 Congressman Ken Calvert. By Thursday morning, Calvert had taken the lead from Rollins and it has slowly but steadily grown. With about 237,865 votes cast, Calvert’s lead is about 10,364 votes. He has 52.3% 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.”

In this district, the number of registered voters is 463,351 and turnout, based on ballots counted, has been about 51.3%. Total county turnout appears to be about 44%, including the uncounted ballots.

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 not been reported yet.

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

Garcia’s total districtwide vote count is 53.5%. Within the entire district, his lead is about 6,060 votes over Weeks. Within just Riverside County, Garcia and Weeks are much closer. Only 728 votes separate Weeks from Garcia, who has a 5,700-vote lead in the Imperial County portion of the district.

In 2018, 63,000 votes were cast in Garcia’s district. This year, already more than 90,000 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 Saturday evening, he had 62% (about 179,400 votes) out of nearly 289,000 votes counted in the four counties that 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 1,283 votes counted for the three Idyllwild Fire Protection District seats, challenger Stephanie Yost is still first, ahead of incumbent Commissioner Rhonda Andrewson by 91 votes. Commissioner Dan Messina is third followed by Commission President Henry Sawicki, who trails Messina by 60 votes for the third seat and appears to have been upset.

As of Saturday evening, the turnout is 69.2%. 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 690-vote lead over Haley with about 6,730 ballots counted.

In the only Riverside County office race, challenger Brian Benoit has expanded his lead over incumbent Paul Angulo. On Sunday morning, Benoit had 54.3% of the vote and about a 40,000-vote lead over Angulo (45.7%).

Monday, Nov. 14, 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 nearly 7,400 votes with 85,360 counted. About 38.9% of registered voters in the district cast ballots.

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 59% of the vote. Cohen, with a lead of more than one million votes, had 55.5% of votes 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 reelected. 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 now vice president Kamala Harris, and won his reelection for a full term beginning in January with 61.2% of the vote.

However, in Riverside County, the majority of voters favored the Republican candidate in all of these races. Only in the most recent counts did Republican Mark Meuser take the lead from Democrat Alex Padilla. The Republican advantage in Riverside County will not be nearly sufficient to offset the 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, 82.5% of voters chose “No” for Prop 27. Its companion, Prop 26, the sports wagering on Tribal lands, garnering only 67.3% “No” votes, also appears defeated.

Prop 29, the kidney dialysis proposition, could only capture support from 31.4% of voters. The third consecutive defeat for a dialysis measure.

Prop 1, the reproductive freedom amendment to the state constitution, received a “Yes” from 66.9% 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 more than 63% support.

The closest proposition contest is Prop 30, the tax on high incomes to fund zero emission vehicles, is trailing with 57.8% opposed.