Espinoza, Lor pull ahead of incumbent Merced County supervisors in latest vote tally
Two challengers in the race for the Merced County Board of Supervisors have pulled ahead of longtime incumbents, according to new election numbers released Friday.
In the District 1 race, Livingston Mayor Rodrigo Espinoza widened his lead over Supervisor John Pedrozo, growing from a gap of fewer than 300 votes to a lead of 428 votes, or 54.65 percent to 45.12 percent.
In District 2, challenger Lee Lor, a longtime community leader, pulled ahead of Hub Walsh, who is seeking his third term. Friday’s figures showed 3,436 votes for Lor, compared with 3,352 for Walsh, or 39.34 percent to 38.37 percent. Since neither candidate won a majority plus one, they will advance to a runoff election in November. A third contender for the district seat, Casey Steed, increased his support to 1,941 votes, or 22.22 percent.
The new numbers accounted for more than 4,900 mail-in ballots that were turned in on Tuesday’s election day, said Barbara Levey, Merced County registrar of voters. There are still about 2,900 provisional ballots that are expected to be tallied by next week.
Given his lead reported late Tuesday night, Espinoza had already declared victory over Pedrozo, a major political power in Merced County who first was elected to the board in 2004.
“We consider it a win,” Espinoza said late Tuesday. “We’re joyful. The citizens of District 1 supported me. We’re going to help District 1 and all of Merced County.”
Across Merced County, there were 33,382 ballots cast, according to the figures posted late Friday afternoon. Voters are able to vote for the Board of Supervisors candidates if they are registered as living in one of the three districts whose seats are up for election this year.
The other open seat is District 4, which is being vacated by retiring Supervisor Deirdre Kelsey. Merced River school board trustee Lloyd Pareira leads the field of five candidates in that race with 2,502 votes, or 43.34 percent, and is expected to face former Gustine Mayor Rich Ford in the November runoff. As of Friday afternoon, Ford had 1,295 votes, or 22.43 percent. Results for other candidates in the race were: Fidel Cervantes with 869 votes, or 15.05 percent; Jack Mobley with 741, or 12.84 percent; and Ramon Prado with 362, or 6.27 percent.
The county must certify all votes by July 7.
This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Espinoza, Lor pull ahead of incumbent Merced County supervisors in latest vote tally."