Victory declared in Merced County Board of Supervisors race. Here’s the latest update
With only around 500 ballots left to count, challenger Josh Pedrozo declared victory on Friday, unseating incumbent Lee Lor in the race for the District 2 seat on the Merced County Board of Supervisors.
Following Friday’s vote count from the Merced County Registrar’s Office, Pedrozo has received 11,490 votes compared to Lor’s 10,123 votes. Pedrozo has received 53.16% to Lor’s 49.84%.
“I am honored to have served as your County Supervisor for District 2 and truly thank you, our hardworking volunteers, and everyone who has supported this journey over the last four years,” Lor stated in a letter she addressed to family and friends.
Lor conceded earlier this week.
Pedrozo says he’s excited about the outcome.
“To be honest, I felt cautiously optimistic after election night,” Pedrozo said. “And once the results started continuously trickling out, every result that was coming out I was gaining. So I was hopeful and gained more confidence as more numbers went out.”
Pedrozo says his priorities in office will be public safety, economic development, homelessness, and roads/transportation improvements.
“I need to do a lot of listening and a lot of learning to find out what it is that the community needs and what I can do to help the district be successful and maximize its potential,” Pedrozo said.
Pedrozo says he intends to call Lor after the election results have been certified to discuss issues she was concerned about and projects she was passionate about. He hopes she will be an asset to help navigate some of the upcoming processes.
In the race for Merced mayor, Matt Serratto handily won the city’s top seat.
Serratto maintained a strong lead over his opponents since election day. Serratto now has 14,226 (52.42%) votes. Michael Belluomini is second with 5,294 (19.51%). Anthony Martinez and Monica Kay Villa trail with 3,921 (14.45%) and 3,625 (13.36%), respectively.
The battle for the Los Banos mayor has been a tight race between music teacher Matt Faria and former police officer Paul Llanez. Faria led by just 13 votes on election night, and 17 days later, Faria appears to be the likely leader with a lead of 32 votes unless Llanez can stage a late comeback.
Faria has received 6,757 (49.91%) votes to Llanez’s 6,725 (49.67%) votes.
Llanez says he’s not prepared to concede.
“I’m riding this thing out,” Llanez said. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve come this far.”
Llanez said he has no problem waiting until all the votes are counted.
“This being 2020, I didn’t have a time frame or expectations,” he said. “I knew this is new territory for (the registrar’s office). I’m hoping to get a final outcome sooner or later.”
Juan Aguilar Jr. has locked up the race for Livingston mayor. Aguilar Jr. has received 2,867 votes, and incumbent Gurpal S. Samra has received 1,385 votes.
The races for the three seats on the Merced City Council were all tightly contested.
In District 1, Jesse Ornelas leads Joel Knox with 1,534 votes to 1,437 votes. Louis Smith is third with 449 votes.
In District 3, Bertha Perez maintains a lead of 112 votes over Allen Brooks. Perez has 1,906 votes to Brooks’ 1,794 votes.
In District 5, Sarah Boyle leads with 2,424 votes compared to her competitor Jeremy Martinez, who has 2,166 votes.
The Registrars Office updated the Nov. 3 election results on Friday afternoon after processing 1,449 more ballots, which brings the total to 91,817 ballots turned in. As of Friday, the voter turnout in Merced County was reported at 78.20%.
“At this time, all ballots, with the exception of the few remaining provisional/conditional ballots that are being reviewed and those ballots for which the voter signature remains challenged, have been counted,” Levey stated in a news release.
“Today (Friday) was the last day that mail could be timely received. Voters can continue to clear challenges through Monday, November 23rd. It is anticipated that we will finish canvass processes, including the review of write-in candidates, next week.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 6:20 PM.
