Thumbnail photo: The Veterans Memorial Hall served as one of the polling places for the June 2 Primary Election. | Photo by Monique Camarena
Chris Howard said he was ready for the “next leg of the adventure” after final election night results were posted Tuesday, though he lamented at the low voter turnout.
As the evening wound to a close, the Del Norte County District 3 supervisor was ahead of his challenger Lupe Gutierrez based on early results the Del Norte County Elections Office posted at about 9:50 p.m.
County Clerk Recorder Alissia Northrup and her staff will spend the week processing ballots, but Howard is already looking toward his fourth term.
“One of the things that I started last year and have been running on is getting the Good Neighbor Authority with the U.S. Forest Service signed and approved by the county and the Forest Service,” Howard told Redwood Voice Community News. “That’ll create an agreement that will really allow us to focus on much-needed infrastructure both recreational and for the management of fuels within our national forests.”
Howard said the potential agreement with the U.S. Forest Service will allow the county to assist other agencies and organizations like the Del Norte Resource Conservation District and the Del Norte Fire Safe Council, which is focusing on fuels management. He said he hoped to have the item before his colleagues on the Board this Tuesday.
As of 9:50 p.m., with 1,183 ballots counted out of a total of 3,463, Howard received 655 votes to Gutierrez’s 435.
Meanwhile, Howard’s colleague District 4 incumbent Joey Borges fared well compared to his opponents Lisa Cundall and Margaret Ann Sargent. Borges came in first with 709 votes out of a total of 1,090 ballots cast. Cundall came in second with 189 votes and Sargent came in third with 106 votes, according to the final election results.
“It feels great,” he said, though he didn’t have an answer for any immediate goals he would like to accomplish in the weeks and months after the June 2 primary. “I’m looking forward to continuing on and trying to do the best that I can to make the best decisions possible.”
Sargent compared the election to the recent failed Proposition 218 protest that led to the Crescent City Council approving water and sewer rate increases on Monday. Even though she was seeking to represent constituents who live outside the city limits, Sargent said she felt she should have to pay “just as much as anybody else for the wastewater treatment plant.”
Though her candidacy for supervisor appears to be at an end for this election cycle, Sargent said she will continue to work with the community.
“I’m going to get a lot louder now, speaking out more,” she said. “I’ve been working with the community and finding different issues going on and investigating them and working them through. I think that’s what all the supervisors need to be doing.”
Northrup said she and her staff handled vote-by-mail ballots all day. They were also being dropped off at the various polling places. However, while the early results that were posted right after the polls closed at 8 p.m. came from the vote-by-mails that had been processed up to Election Day, Northrup said the final numbers reflect the number of voters who actually cast a ballot at their precinct.
Still, Northrup said that a significant number of people also dropped their vote-by-mail ballot off at a polling place.
“That seems to be more of what they were doing than voting at the precincts, so all of those will have to be verified before we can count them,” she said. “It just seems like every year that’s what you see more and more (of). People still feel like they get the precinct experience, but they’re voting by mail. And, also, you can drop it off at any precinct, it doesn’t have to be your own.”
Northrup said her office has 30 days to verify and process all the ballots. She said she’ll have an update on the count on Friday, noting that people were turning ballots in right until the 8 p.m. cutoff.
At the state level, Del Norte County voters favored Republican Michael Greer for the California Assembly District 2 seat over Chris Rogers. Greer, who is a Del Norte Unified School District trustee, received 2,367 votes over the Democratic incumbent’s 1,815, according to Del Norte County’s election results.
Rogers led Greer in the overall Assembly District 2 race receiving 40,800 votes to his opponent’s 22,192, according to the California Secretary of State website. Greer will face Rogers in the Nov. 3 General Election.
As for the California State Senate District 2 race, previously held by Mike McGuire, Democrat Damon Connolly and Republican Tieff Gibbs were the top two vote-getters as of about 11 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Secretary of State website. Gibbs’ fellow Republican, Aaron Smith, came in third with 2,080 votes.
Congressman Jared Huffman also fared well against his seven opponents with Republican Robin Littau coming in second, according to the results so far. For more information about state and national election results click here.
