- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Election 2018: Supervisorial races remain close as ballot count set to continue
Based on preliminary vote counts, Bruno Sabatier led Joyce Overton in the race for the District 2 race and EJ Crandell was just edging Denise Loustalot for the District 3 seat.
However, both races come down to differences of dozens of ballots, and with many absentee and provisional ballots still to count, a final verdict will have to wait for the conclusion of the 30-day official canvass.
Also adding to the uncertainty in both races is how the results shifted back and forth throughout the night, which began with initial counts of early absentee ballots.
In those early counts, both Overton and Loustalot established early leads, which they maintained throughout the night.
It wasn’t until the preliminary vote counts in the first of the eight precincts in District 2 were reported that Sabatier started to catch up to Overton, finally surpassing her by just 78 ballots as the final precincts came in.
By the end of the night, the preliminary count had Sabatier with 518 ballots, or 53.7 percent of the vote, to Overton’s 440 votes, or 45.6 percent. There also were six write-in ballots cast, for 0.6 percent of the vote.
Likewise, Loustalot led Crandell by a consistent margin of about 5 percent during the night, with that margin rising to 6 percent with 11 of the 18 precincts reporting.
However, when all 18 precincts were reported to be in, the placements completely flipped, with Crandell coming out with a lead of 50.7 percent to Loustalot’s 48.8 percent.
That preliminary lead comes down to a margin of only 30 votes: Crandell’s ballot count was 826 to Loustalot’s 796.
With both Overton and Loustalot having held strong absentee percentages, the question remains whether that pattern will be repeated in the absentees still to be counted. That, in turn, raises the possibility of the race placements changing again.
As she has done in prior elections, Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley is expected to issue a report on the number of ballots yet to count.
She will have 30 days to conduct the official canvass and certification that will finalize the primary election’s results.
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