LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Voters in the Tuesday primary returned one longtime supervisor to office, with two other supervisorial races turning into fall runoffs.
The key local races on the presidential primary ballot included the contests for the District 1, 4 and 5 seats on the Lake County Board of Supervisors.
Although the election results are considered preliminary until the final canvass is completed by early next month, in one race – District 5 – the results appear certain.
Supervisor Rob Brown from Kelseyville was handily reelected to a fifth term on Tuesday, with 63.4 percent of the vote, or 1,248 votes cast. He needed at least 50 percent plus one vote to win outright in the primary.
He was challenged this year by Phil Reimers of Cobb, who brought in 435 votes, or 22.1 percent, and John Stoddard of Kelseyville, who received 274 votes or 13.9 percent of ballots cast.
Even with some absentees and provisional ballots to be counted, Brown's lead appears to be insurmountable.
In the District 1 and 4 races, the fields will be narrowed down to two candidates each and will become November runoff races.
In the District 1 contest, the top spots so far are separated by only a handful of ballots.
Businesswoman and former county planning commissioner Monica Rosenthal led the field with 455 votes or 28.4 percent, followed by Middletown Rancheria Tribal Chair Jose “Moke” Simon III, with 447 votes or 27.9 percent.
Voris Brumfield, a lay minister who held the District 1 supervisorial seat in the 1980s, received 397 votes, or 24.8 percent, followed by Jim Ryan, a longtime Sonoma County Sheriff's deputy, with 301 votes or 18.8 percent.
In the District 4 race, Tina Scott, a Lakeport Unified School District Board member, received 705 votes, or 33.8 percent, followed by Lakeport City Councilman Martin Scheel with 513 votes, or 24.6 percent.
Lake County Chamber of Commerce president and former city councilman Ted Mandrones came in third in the District 4 race according to the preliminary results, with 382 votes or 18.3 percent, followed by farmer Phil Murphy, 271 votes or 13 percent, and businessman Ron Rose, 211 votes or 10.1 percent.
Also on Tuesday, Kelseyville Unified School District's Measure U bond for school improvements passed, receiving 1,177 yes votes, or 61 percent, versus 751 no votes, which amounted to 39 percent.
Lake County's members of the House of Representatives, John Garamendi (D-CA-3) and Mike Thompson (D-CA-5), led their fields in Lake County and across their respective districts in their bids for reelection. They must still run to a fall finish.
In the race for the Fourth District Assembly seat, Republican Charlie Schaupp and Democrat Cecilia Aguiar-Curry appear poised to go to a fall runoff, with Schaupp leading with 29.1 percent, or 22,334 votes, to Aguiar-Curry's 21,620 votes, or 28.2 percent, across the district, according to the California Secretary of State's Office.
Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley and her staff had begun processing absentee ballots on May 17, releasing those results after the polls closed Tuesday evening.
The elections staff continued processing ballots throughout the night, releasing the last numbers in the preliminary count at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
They will now move into the official canvass to finalize the results. They'll also continue processing absentee ballots that were mailed in and due no later than June 10, according to the California Secretary of State's Office.
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ELECTION 2016: Brown reelected, District 1 and 4 races head for November runoffs
- Elizabeth Larson
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