With thousands of provisional votes now part of the official count from the Nov. 4 election, it appears that all local results will hold in the races for Santa Monica City Council, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education, and Santa Monica College Board of Trustees.
Santa Monica City Council
According to the latest results by the L.A. County Registrar’s Office posted at 3:57 pm on Nov. 10, the three City Council seats will belong to incumbent Kevin McKeown who remains the top-vote getter with 9,169 votes (17.17 percent) followed by Sue Himmelrich with 8,378 votes (15.69 percent) and incumbent Pam O’Connor with 6,011 votes (11.26 percent).
Himmelrich will take the seat vacated by Bob Holbrook, who is retiring from Council.
The next closest vote getters are Phil Brock (5,255 votes/9.84 percent), Frank Gruber (4,692 votes/8.79 percent), Jennifer Kennedy (4,540 votes/8.5 percent), and Richard McKinnon (4,422 votes/8.28 percent) in the race that featured 14 candidates.
A total of 20,479 of the registered 58,803 Santa Monica voters took part in the Santa Monica City Council election at the polls, according to the County of Los Angeles Semifinal Official Canvass Statement of Votes Cast by Community.
The 34.8 percent voter turn out rate is a dramatic drop from the close-to 65 percent participation rate in the 2010 election.
SMMUSD Board of Education
In the race for the SMMUSD Board of Education, Laurie Lieberman increased her lead with 13,626 votes (20.83 percent), according to the latest L.A. County Registrar figures.
Challenger Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein jumped to second place with 11,001 votes (16.82 percent) while challenger Craig Foster dropped to third place with 10,728 votes (16.4 percent).
In the battle for the fourth and final seat, incumbent Oscar de la Torre (10,629 votes/16.25 percent) has increased his lead over incumbent Ralph Mechur (10,335 votes / 15.8 percent) from 264 votes last week to 295 votes this week.
The sixth and seventh place getters are Patty Finer (4,557 votes/6.97 percent) and Dhun May (4,541 votes/6.94 percent).
SMC Board of Trustees
All four incumbents seeking re-election to the SMC Board of Trustees are holding decent leads over the two challengers.
Nancy Greenstein leads with 13,056 votes (20.52 percent) ahead of Louise Jaffe (12,922 votes/20.31 percent), Barry Snell (10,530 votes/16.55 percent), and Andrew Walzer (9,939 votes/15.62 percent).
Challengers Dennis Frisch (9,050 votes/14.22 percent) and Maria Loya (8,129 votes/12.78 percent) are likely to finish in fifth and sixth place once all counting is done.
Results are unofficial at this stage with the City Clerk’s Office waiting on votes by mail. The complete canvass of returns is due to be completed by Dec. 2, 2014.
A swearing-in ceremony will be held at Santa Monica City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 9, which is open to the public.
