With daily ballot drops from Los Angeles County this week, it’s been a late afternoon turnaround as the City Council race changes positions again. New numbers from Nov.15 show Dan O’Brien is holding the lead, Freddy Puza is a solid second, and Alex Fisch has now passed Denice Renteria for third place.
The exact numbers are as follows – O’Brien holding the top with 25.52%, with 5,922 votes, Puza has 22.44% with 5,208 – a gap of 714 votes. Only if that narrows to double digits in the next two ballot drops could it mean O’Brien losing the lead. Fisch is close behind Puza, with 21.67%, or 5,029 votes and those candidates could still easily changes places. Renteria is in fourth at with 21.55%, or 5,001 votes. Coming up short in the last three ballot drops, odds do not favor Renteria coming back into a higher position.
But nothing can be ruled out – we won’t know how many people voted until after the count is complete, and there will be more ballots added to the count today. The County noted that 70% of voters dropped it in the mail, and with votes coming in from other parts of the state, the country or even the globe – (I know of one voter mailing it in from Canada and two more in the UK) it may well be December before the contest is closed.
In other races, Measure VY continues to close the gap, with less than 500 votes between YES and NO; YES is at 6515 votes, or 48.18% and NO is 6,616 at 51.82% for a difference of 465 votes.
Measure BL continues to lead YES with more than 60% of the vote. NO is less than 40%, so that contest is most likely settled.
The School Board has also changed position towards the bottom of the race, with three top names still unchanged since election night. Guerrero is in the top spot, followed by Ezidore and Loredo. Menthe is still fourth, now followed by McBride. This race looks to be settled as well, unless a major surge comes in for Menthe, who is more than 600 votes down from Loredo.
That breathing thing is really never bad advice.
Judith Martin-Straw
