Merced County’s primary election is approaching. Who’s running, and what you need to know
Deadlines are approaching quickly for Merced County’s June 7 primary election — and many important local seats are on the ballot, including district attorney, sheriff, representatives for Sacramento and others local elected offices.
The upcoming primary will be the second time Merced County has conducted elections under the California Voter’s Choice Act, which allows voters more flexibility when casting ballots.
Under the act, traditional polling places are replaced with Voting Assistance Centers. Voters can register to vote and cast their ballot at these centers, vote with an accessible voting machine, drop off a ballot mailed to them and get help voting, as well as get voting materials in multiple languages.
More than 104,000 voters turned out for the last primary election in March 2020, according to final certified results. That increased to 117,413 voters for the November 2020 presidential election. There are currently 124,206 registered voters in the county, according to Darlene Ingersoll, the Merced County Registrar of Voters.
“The Voter’s Choice Act allows voters to choose how, when and where to cast their ballot by mailing every active registered voter a ballot, expanding in-person early voting and allowing voters to cast a ballot at any Voting Assistance Center in Merced County,” Ingersoll said.
Voters can return their ballot by mail, official secure county ballot drop box or at any Voting Assistance Center in the county, Ingersoll added.
The deadline to file candidate paperwork for local and state races is March 11.
Voters already registered to vote will get their ballots in the mail 28 days before the election. Merced County is one of 16 counties in the state to conduct elections under Voter’s Choice Act rules.
On March 31, the Merced County Registrar of Voters will release a certified list of local candidates, while the California Secretary of State’s office will release a certified list of state and federal candidates.
May 23 is the last day to register to vote to be eligible to vote in the June 7 election, although conditional voter registration is still open until the day of the election.
Vote by mail ballot requests will be accepted for overseas and military voters only from April 8-23, and all vote-by-mail ballots will be accepted starting May 9. The last day to request a vote by mail ballot by mail is May 23. Vote by mail ballots must be postmarked by June 7 to be accepted by the day of the election.
Voter information guides will be mailed by the California Secretary of State’s office on April 28, the same day the county starts mailing its voter information guides.
Here’s a list of local offices on the June 7 ballot, and candidates who filed to run so far.
Merced County District Attorney
One of the highest profile races to watch this election season will be the race for Merced County District Attorney, as incumbent Kimberly Helms Lewis is running for re-election. Thus far she has one challenger, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Nicole Silveira, who also running for the position.
Merced County Superior Court
This year’s ballot this year will see several current judges running for their seats: Judge Carol Ash, Paul Lo, Donald Proietti and David Moranda. No challengers for any of the four seats have filed so far.
Merced County Superintendent of Schools
Incumbent Steven Tietjen is running for re-election as Merced County Superintendent of Schools against challenger Alberto Perfirio Lopez Velarde, who currently works as the principal of Heritage Elementary School, a public elementary school in the Lodi Unified School District in San Joaquin County.
Merced County Board of Supervisors
Daron McDaniel, an Atwater resident, is running for re-election for his current seat on the Merced County Board of Supervisors for District 3.
Another incumbent, Scott Silveira, is running for the District 5 seat on the board.
McDaniel’s district takes up a small but populous chunk in the middle of Merced County that encompasses the City of Atwater.
District 5, Silveira’s current district, takes up a much larger territory in the southernmost end of Merced County, including Los Banos, Dos Palos, the Los Banos Reservoir and the San Luis Reservoir.
State Senate, Assembly, Congress
The only candidate to file paperwork for the newly-drawn 14th District State Senate race is incumbent Anna Caballero, who was first elected to what is currently the 12th District in 2018. The 14th District, the district in which she is running for State Senate, will take effect with the June primary. She filed a declaration of intent to run on March 3.
The current District 14 Senator, Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), announced her intention run for re-election for the District 14 seat, but last month announced a change in her campaign to run for the District 16 seat instead. The new District 16 boundaries includes Hurtado’s hometown of Sanger.
The new District 14 boundaries include parts of Fresno to the south, and go west almost to San Benito and includes parts of Madera County and goes all the way up to Merced County. It also includes parts of Modesto to the north.
The 27th Assembly District race, so far, has candidates in Fresno City Council member Esmeralda Soria and Mark Pazin (former Merced County Sheriff and former chief of California’s Office of Emergency Services).
Fresno Councilmember Mike Karbassi, who is a moderate Democrat, said he’s also exploring a run for the 27th Assembly seat. The new 27th Assembly District seat includes portions of Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties.
The incumbent, Democrat Adam Gray, is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 13th Congressional District. California’s new 13th Congressional District, which stretches through parts of Modesto and Turlock past Coalinga and captures all of Merced County. He is facing Democratic challengers Phil Arballo and infectious disease expert Angelina Sigala.
Running for the 13th District seat on Republican side tech executive Elizabeth Heng, Matt Stoll, a former fighter pilot who also is running in the special election to replace Devin Nunes (who left Congress in January), and Diego Martinez, a businessman who ran in the recall election against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and businessman David Giglio.
The state Assembly 22nd District race only has one candidate, Chad Condit, so far. Condit is the son of former Congressman Gary Condit and worked for Assemblymember Dennis Cardoza as chief of staff. He also worked as an assistant to former Gov. Gray Davis.
Incumbent Kevin Mullin, who is also the speaker pro tempore of the state Assembly and has represented the 22nd District since 2014, is running for the 15th District seat in the U.S. Congress.
Other races on the ballot
Other county incumbents running for reelection include Matt May, the current Assessor-Recorder, Auditor-Controller Lisa Cardella-Presto, Merced County Sheriff Vernon Warnke and Treasurer-Tax Collector Karen Adams. No one has filed paperwork to challenge these incumbents in any of these races so far.
Two Merced Irrigation District board members are running for their current seats. Robert Weimer, the Division 5 representative and president of the board, and Mario Bandoni, the Division 2 representative, are running for reelection.
The only other seat up for grabs on the MID board is the Division 4 spot. The only candidate to file paperwork for that seat so far is a candidate named Eric Cabral, who is vying for Suzy Hultgren’s current seat.
With one week left until the deadline for candidates to file paperwork to run for elected office in the June election, the number of candidates for any of these offices could change before the candidate filing nomination extension period ends.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.