As most Election Day victory margins grew with each day of the counting of mail ballots, two Scotts Valley races remained in doubt – and were likely to stay that way into next week.
With more than 95 percent of all ballots counted, Corey Warner hung on to a 39-vote lead over Stephanie Espinola in a bid for one of the open two-year sets on the Board of Trustees of the Scotts Valley Unified School District.
And two Smiths – not related – remained close as kin in the contest for a seat on the Scotts Valley Fire Protection District board. Alan Smith led Arthur Smith by 119 votes.
County Clerk Gail Pellerin reported that a total of 81,732 mail ballot were counted, nearly 66 percent of all votes cast in the county, a record.
The final turnout figures won’t be know until the end of the month, but were likely to slip above 80 percent. This would make it one of the biggest turnouts ever, but short of the record 86.7 percent in 2008.
All mail ballot from Santa Cruz county voters had been counted by Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 22, leaving a little over 5,000 of the provisional ballots – less than 5 percent of the total – to be examined the rest of the month.
Here are the latest Santa Cruz County numbers as of Nov. 22:
President
Hillary Clinton 73.4 percent
Donald Trump 17.3 percent
U.S. Senate
Kamala Harris 72.1 percent
Loretta Sanchez 27.9 percent
Congress
Rep. Anna Eshoo 71.4 percent
Richard Fox 28.6 percent
State Senate
Sen. Bill Monning 78.4 percent
Palmer Kain 21.6 percent
State Assembly
Assemblymember Mark Stone 78 percent
Sierra Roberts 22 percent
Scotts Valley School Trustee, 4-year
(w) Michael Shulman 4,060
(w) Kim Shultz 3,958
(w) Sue Rains 3,761
Sue Roth 3,487
Farah G. Theissen 3,100
Cathie Simonovich 2,438
Scotts Valley School Trustee, 2-year
(w) Roger Snyder 4,030
Corey Warner 2,956
Stephanie Espinola 2,917
Gia Schwarzer 2,529
Scotts Valley City Council
(w) Donna Lind 3,392
(w) Randy Johnson 3,254
(w) Jack Dilles 3,025
Rosanna Herrera 2,731
Dene Bustichi 2,535
Scotts Valley Fire Protection District (3)
(w) Daron Pisciotta 6,049
(w) Russ Patterson 3,724
Alan Smith 2,861
Arthur Smith 2,742
Shawn Mosley 2,175
Phillip Witt 1,827
San Lorenzo Valley Water District (2)
Bill Smallman 6,856
Margaret Bruce 6,416
Randall Brown 4,799
Measure D transportation sales tax
Yes 67.5 percent YES (needed 66.67)
(928-vote margin)
No 32.5 percent No
Measure E pot business tax
Yes 80.6 percent YES (needed 50.1)
No 19.4 percent No
Boulder Creek Fire parcel tax
Yes 83.6 percent YES (needed 66.67)
No 16.4 percent No
Zayante Fire District parcel tax
Yes 79.8 percent Yes (needed 66.67)
No 20.2 percent No
Some Propositions
Santa Cruz CA
Prop 51 (school bonds) 56-44 yes YES
Prop 52 (Medi-Cal) 74-26 yes YES
Prop 55 (tax wealthy) 73-27 yes YES
Prop 56 (tax cigarettes) 72-28 yes YES
Prop 61 (drug prices) 53-46 yes NO
Prop 62 (ban death penalty) 64-36 yes NO
Prop 63 (gun controls) 72-28 yes YES
Prop 64 (legalize pot) 70-30 yes YES
Prop 67 (ban plastic bags) 75-25 yes YES