2020 Election update: Merced County sets voter turnout record; Los Banos has new mayor

Tom Faria is officially the next mayor of Los Banos, following a narrow victory that saw the local music teacher and former councilman edge out his opponent with just a few dozen votes.

Final election results, certified Wednesday by the Merced County Registrar’s Office, concluded Faria defeated former police officer Paul Llanez by a mere 32 votes — 6,794 to 6,762.

Faria told the Sun-Star on Wednesday that during the election he listened to not only his supporters’ concerns, but supporters of his opponent as well. Faria said their ideas and concerns won’t fall on deaf ears.

“I’d like to thank the people of Los Banos for putting their faith in me to be their mayor. I’m excited to become mayor,” Faria said.

“I’m looking forward to working with the City Council on the issues that were talked about during the election and issues that the people of Los Banos are concerned about. Issues like well-paying jobs, fighting crime, homelessness and the on-going challenges of COVID-19.”

Llanez said he’s still looking options, in terms of a possible a recount because “it was super, super close.”

“I put it all out there. I’ve never run for office or done anything like this so it was a great experience,” he said.

When asked whether he would run again, Llanez said he would think about it. “I want to take some time. I would love to do it again in a normal scenario where we could knock on doors and shake some hands.”

Record voter turnout

According to the Registrar of Voters, 78.72% of Merced County’s 117,413 voters cast ballots — a record for voter turnout. In the 2016 presidential election, 73.21% of registered voters cast ballots.

The move to the California Voter’s Choice Act, where all voters received a ballot by mail, gave people an opportunity to vote early this year.

“As a team I felt we responded and performed well. I feel our equipment responded and performed well. I’m pleased with the work we did. We’re confident in the results,” Barbara Levey, Merced County registrar of voters, told the Sun-Star.

In the race for Los Banos City Council District 1, Kenneth W. Lambert defeated Dave Newman, 1,882 to 1,300 votes. Deborah Lewis ran unopposed for Los Banos City Council District 2 and received 96.4% of the vote.

Among other major Westside races, April Smith-Hogue ran unopposed for Dos Palos mayor and received 93.56% of the vote.

In the four-person race for two seats on the Dos Palos City Council, Armando Bravo and Marcus Porter came out on top with 991 and 778 votes, respectively. Jessica Michele Soares and Michael McGlynn trailed behind, with 562 and 312 votes, respectively.

Other Merced County races

Wednesday’s confirmation of the vote also finalized a few other closely watched races that didn’t have a clear winner Nov. 3.

Longtime local activist Jesse Ornelas was declared the winner of Merced City Council District 1 over educator Joel Knox with 1,541 votes to 1,443.

In Merced City Council District 3, Bertha Perez defeated NAACP Merced leader Allen Brooks, 1,923 votes to 1,805.

Sarah Boyle won the Merced City Council District 5 seat, getting 2,440 votes compared to competitor Jeremy Martinez, who received 2,181.

Juan Aguilar Jr. locked up the race for Livingston mayor with 2,887 votes over incumbent Gurpal S. Samra’s 1,390 votes.

Among races where there were no last-minute surprises, prosecutor and city councilman Matt Serratto easily cruised to victory in the Merced mayor’s race, getting 52.36% in a field of four candidates. His closest competitor, Michael Belloumini, received 19.46%.

Josh Pedrozo defeated incumbent Merced County District 2 Supervisor Lee Lor, 52.23% to 46.77%.

Democratic Congressman Jim Costa held onto his District 16 House of Representatives seat, beating Republican Kevin Cookingham 55.5% to 45.5%.

In the California Assembly District 21 race, incumbent Democrat Adam Gray cruised to victory over Republican Joel Gutierrez Campos, 59.83% to 44.50%.

How Merced County voted in the presidential race

The majority of Merced County voters turned out to support Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris.

Biden and Harris received 48,991 Merced County votes (53.84%) over President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who received 39,397 votes (43.30%).

Roughly 3% of Merced County voters (2,605 people) supported either third-party or write-in candidates.

This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 11:37 AM.