Merced County election update: 7,000 more votes counted; some council, mayoral seats close
The Merced County Registrars Office has counted another 7,328 ballots since the Nov. 3 election, bringing the total to 90,368 in the county.
According to Registrar Barbara Levey, the processing of the more than 1,700 provisional/conditional ballots cast also continued Thursday.
Turnout for the election is at 76.97%.
“At this time, all ballots, with the exception of the provisional/conditional ballots that are being reviewed and those ballots for which signature letters were sent, have been counted,” Levey said in a news release.
The next update on the vote totals will be Nov. 20, the last day the county can receive timely ballots through the mail, Levy said.
Here are where the numbers stand in top races:
Merced mayor
Matthew Serratto continues his stride toward the mayor’s seat, with 52.55% of the vote to Michael Belluomini’s 19.68%. The other challengers in the mayor’s race —Anthony Martinez and Monica Kay Villa — have 14.30% and 13.20% respectively.
Merced City Council
District 1: Activist Jesse Ornelas’ lead over educator Joel Knox has increased from 74 to 80 votes. Ornelas has 1,503 to Knox’s 1,423. Louis Smith has 443 votes.
District 3: Bertha Perez continues to lead Allen Brooks, 51.26% to 48.41%.
District 5: Sarah Boyle maintains her lead over Jeremy Martinez, 52.63% to 46.97%.
Merced County Board of Supervisors
In the District 2 race, Josh Pedrozo has 11,300 votes and incumbent Lee Lor has 10,018 — 53.01% to 46.99% respectively.
Los Banos mayor
The race for Los Banos mayor continues to be close with music teacher and councilman Tom Faria leading former police officer Paul Llanez by 48 votes. Faria has 6,637 votes, which equates to 49.97% of the total 13,283 votes. Llanez has received 6,589 (49.60%) votes.
Livingston mayor
Juan Aguilar Jr. leads incumbent Gurpal S. Samra 2,825 votes to 1,369.
For the full list of county election results, visit the registrar’s website.
