Five-term incumbent Bob Holbrook held his lead over Planning Commissioner Ted Winterer after 10-days of counting vote-by-mail ballots for the Santa Monica City Council election. Both challengers moved up in vote totals for Council seat, with Holbrook’s gains positioning him to hold the final remaining council seat, although he as only 43 more votes than his competitor.
Holbrook holds a less than .1 percent lead as of Friday following the Nov. 2 mid-term election, according to the County of Los Angeles Department of Registrar. Both crossed 12,000 votes leaving Holbrook at 17.1 percent, while Winterer held 17.04 percent in fourth place. At the initial close of the polls Holbrook had a 146-vote lead but both have jumped to close the gap in votes.
Officials have yet to seal the fate of the final open seat with thousands of vote-by-mail ballots waiting to be counted. County officials still have about 390,000 ballots countywide to count with close to 6,000 in Santa Monica alone since the day of the election.
L.A. County officials could not confirm this week how many ballots are left for Santa Monica, but it is estimated that thousands of votes have been added to city totals since Election Day.
Election results should be updated on Tuesday if indeed more ballots are left to be counted, according to the L.A. County Registrar. The clerk’s office is required to have a final result within 30 days, which can come as late as Nov. 30. Santa Monica has no required recount provisions.
The winner will join incumbents Kevin McKeown, Pam O’Connor, Gleam Davis, and Terry O’Day as winners in this year’s election. The group as a whole will form the next Santa Monica City Council with Mayor Bobby Shriver and Council member Richard Bloom whose seats were not up for re-election this year.
