Opinski maintains slight lead over Johnson in MUHSD board of trustees race

The race for the Area 1 seat on the Merced Union High School District board of trustees continues to be a close one. A Friday night ballot count update showed incumbent Ida Johnson closing the gap as she nears challenger Greg Opinski.

Just 27 votes separated the two after most mail-in ballots had been counted Friday. Opinski maintained his lead with 37.89 percent of the votes, with Johnson trailing closely with 37.36 percent.

According to Merced County Registrar of Voters Barbara Levey, the goal was to get most of the 5,757 mail-in ballots counted Friday. She explained that only a few dozen ballots are left to be counted, and a few need to be duplicated because they were not being read by the ballot-counting machines.

She anticipated the mail-in ballot count would be completed by Monday. Very few of the 1,505 provisional ballots had been counted as of Friday. When the provisional ballot count would be done was not clear, as there was still a lot of work to be done, Levey said.

Prior to Friday, 31 votes separated Opinski and Johnson. Opinksi was in the lead with 38.49 percent of the votes over Johnson’s 37.76 percent.

Johnson, a trustee for eight years, told the Merced Sun-Star on Wednesday that if she succeeds, she will continue to to do what she can to help improve local schools, especially in the area of career and technical education.

If Opinksi wins the election, she wishes him well, she said.

Opinski said he is looking forward to serving on the board. He decided to run because he wishes to help the board of trustees with tough financial decisions that lie ahead, he said.

Opinski, a Gustine native and building contracter, sued the district for about $1.5 million for breach of contract in connection with remodeling at Livingston High School. Because his company is no longer doing public works projects for the school, he believes the lawsuit would not be awkward for him or the rest of the board members.

This story was originally published November 7, 2014 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Opinski maintains slight lead over Johnson in MUHSD board of trustees race."