LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The early results in the race for the District 1 supervisorial seat once again show a tight race that isn’t expected to be decided until final results are certified next month.

As of 4 a.m. Wednesday, the count released by the Lake County Registrar of Voters showed the race between District 1 Planning Commissioner John Hess and rancher Helen Owen as being separated by a narrow margin.

Owen was shown as leading with 722 votes, or 54.45%, to Hess’ 604 votes, or 45.55%.

At that point, all 12 precincts had been counted but many more ballots are yet to be tallied.

The two also had a tight race in March. Hess held a two-vote lead over Owen in a five-candidate field in the initial March primary tally. However, with the final count in April, Owen took the lead. She received 1,185 votes, or 39.06%, followed by Hess, with 1,006 votes or 33.16%.

“That’s exactly what I’ve expected,” said Hess in the phone call with Lake County News soon after the first early results were announced on election night.

“I just think it’s too early to do much interpreting, with only 13% of that vote in,” said Hess of the ballots that had been counted at that point.

The best insight he had, Hess said, was that he's “cautiously optimistic.”

On Election Day, Hess said he waved signs on Highway 29 and Hartmann Road, and made a lot of phone calls with people, “urging them to vote.”

Then he went to an election party with some candidates running for other races such as the Clearlake and Lakeport city councils. Hess said the party was held at Clearlake Mayor David Claffey’s home, who’s also in a re-election campaign.

Hess headed home at about 10 p.m. “I’ll be checking repeatedly,” he said of the election results that were expected to be updated throughout the night on the county’s website.

For Owen, who is temporarily nine votes behind, “I’m glad the campaign’s over.” It also feels like a replay of the primary election earlier this year.

“In March, I was down and then the week before it was finalized, I jumped up,” she said. “I have a lot of hope that we make it in and that we can get some stuff done.”

Owen said she spent most of the day at the roundabout at Highway 29 and Hartmann road with her team, waving signs, dancing with music played from her phone, for four hours in the morning and another four hours in the afternoon.

Owen couldn’t remember what time she left there, but “those street lights were on, so it was dark,” she said. After that she and her team celebrated the campaign in a watch party at the Lion’s Club.

“We ran a good campaign with a lot less money and I’m pretty proud that we were able to accomplish what we accomplished with a fraction of money,” she said.

This result is preliminary and is subject to change with more information released from the county’s Registrar of Voters. No new updates have been made on the race by 3 a.m.

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