Election Update: Pedrozo gains in supervisors race, Faria leads Los Banos mayor’s race

The Merced County Registrar’s Office released more election numbers Thursday night, reflecting 2,000 additional ballots that have been counted.

Some candidates gained some ground with the latest numbers release, though Registrar Barbara Levey said the count isn’t over, with more results scheduled for release Friday afternoon.

Voter turnout thus far is estimated around 77% with 64,219 ballots counted. “Final results are due no later than December 5,” Levey said. “I hope that we are certified prior to this date.”

Where the races stand

In one of the tightest races, the Los Banos mayor’s race, Tom Faria had earlier led Paul Llanez by just 13 votes. That lead grew Thursday night to 21 votes, with Faria receiving 4,578 votes compared to Llanez’s 4,557.

“I guess it’s like what Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’” said Faria.

Both Los Banos mayor candidates said the COVID-19 pandemic made it a much different election for candidates. The virus didn’t allow for candidates to knock on doors, shake hands and interact with the public.

“I knew this election would be unique with 2020 and everything else going on,” Llanez said. “I was still able to do close to 7,000 calls and 250-plus meetings. I put in the effort. I went into the election not trying to sell myself but to gain input and hear from the community what they wanted in a mayor.”

Llanez said he received a lot of calls and texts from people who said they were sorry he lost by 13 votes. He had to explain to them that the election isn’t over and votes are still being counted.

“Now I just want to know,” Llanez said.

For Merced City Council, in District 1 Joel Knox remains in the lead over Jesse F. Ornelas, — but only by six votes, 1,023 to 1,017.

In District 3, Bertha A. Perez had led Allen Brooks by just nine votes. That lead grew to 22 votes Thursday night, with Perez getting 1,352 votes compared to Brooks’ 1,330.

In Merced City Council District 5, Sarah Boyle leads with 1,852 (53.38%) over Jeremy Martinez 1,575 (46.32%).

Veteran prosecutor Matt Serratto as of Thursday night maintained his massive lead in the Merced mayor’s race with 10,337 votes, which accounts for 52.21%. Michael Belluomini’s is second in the four-person race with 4,136 (20.88%) votes. Anthony Martinez and Monica Kay Villa still trail far behind in the race, with 2,691 and 2,584 votes respectively.

In the runoff for Merced County Supervisor District 2, Josh Pedrozo gained some ground against Lee Lor, putting him ahead of the incumbent supervisor by 578 votes. Pedrozo now has 51.79% (8,362 votes) compared to Lor’s 48.21% (7,784 votes) — a difference of 578 votes between them.

In the Livingston mayor’s race, Juan Aguilar Jr. leads incumbent Gurpal S. Samra 1,780 votes to 1,066.

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.

When processing ballots, each signature must be verified. If the signature doesn’t match the signature on file, the voter is notified. Voter participation history is updated for every voter who turned in a ballot. Every mail-in envelope is opened, the ballot is extracted and flattened. Each ballot is fed through the high speed ballot scanning equipment to tabulate them.

California law provides that vote-by-mail ballots may be accepted through Friday, November 20th provided that they are postmarked on or before November 3, 2020.

This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Election Update: Pedrozo gains in supervisors race, Faria leads Los Banos mayor’s race."