Merced County Election: ‘Thousands’ of ballots uncounted, some races still in question
The morning after Tuesday’s presidential general election, thousands of votes still remain to be processed in Merced County.
“We haven’t let up, we came in bright and early this morning,” said Merced County Registrar Barbara Levey. “I’m hopeful that by the end of (Wednesday) we’ll have a count of how many are remaining to process.”
All eligible voters this year were sent mail-in ballots in an effort to promote physical distancing while voting amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Ballots that were postmarked by Election Day are still valid.
Eight drop-off ballot boxes were available countywide plus 13 vote centers.
Although about 75% of county residents have typically voted by mail during prior elections, Levey said the complete shift, in addition to other necessary precautions taken against COVID-19, represented a “big task.”
“It was extremely different, we had an extraordinary amount of work to do in that we changed the entire method,” Levey said. “There were a lot of challenges with all of that, but I think that we did well.”
Despite a hefty public awareness effort to inform residents about this year’s changes, the elections office still received calls from residents confused about the process. But for the most part, voters were patient, happy and excited to cast their ballots, Levey said.
Merced County voter turnout won’t be clear until all ballots are processed, but Levey estimated that it would be over 70%. During the November 2016 general election 99,224 Merced County voters cast ballots for a turnout of just over 73%, according to Levey.
Local turnout for the presidential primary election in March was about 43%. Primary elections typically draw smaller voter engagement than general elections.
Merced County voter turnout usually aligns with California as a whole, Levey said, noting that this election’s early returns indicated the county was on par with statewide trends.
Unofficial results so far
With many votes left to count, Levey said its possible Merced County residents and candidates alike will have to wait longer than Wednesday for the next round of election updates.
“The results that are currently in place are the unofficial results, and there remains thousands and thousands of ballots to count,” Levey said.
Some early election results on Tuesday night indicated strong leads for some local candidates that will be tough for their opponents to overcome.
For example, in the Merced mayors’ race, frontrunner Matthew Serratto’s 52.08% of votes has eclipsed runner-up Michael Belluomini’s 20.94%.
In the Livingston mayor’s race, Juan Aguilar Jr.’s 62.31% of votes showed an early lead over incumbent Gurpal S. Samra’s 37.51%.
Merced City Council Districts 5 showed a narrower margin, but indicated that businesswoman Sarah Boyle’s 53.29% of votes would triumph over business manager Jeremy Martinez’s 46.40%
Former Merced City Councilmember Josh Pedrozo and incumbent Supervisor Lee Lor faced off for the second time in the race for the county’s District 2. As of Tuesday evening, Pedrozo had won 51.55% of votes over Lor’s 48.45%.
Races too close to call
Other local races are too tight to determine a winner, like the Merced City Council District 3 race, where Bertha Perez is ahead of challenger Allen Brooks by a stunning six votes, 50.06% to 49.71% respectively.
The Los Banos mayoral candidates are 13 votes apart, with Tom Faria holding 49.88% of votes and Paul Llanez claiming 49.74%.
