Bruce Gibson declares victory in 3-way race for SLO County District 2 supervisor

Bruce Gibson declared victory Wednesday morning in the three-way race for San Luis Obispo County District 2 supervisor.

"Taking just over 59 percent of the vote, I've been elected outright — no runoff in November," Gibson wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday.

Gibson led by 1,941 votes in the last return announced in the hours after the polls closed with all precincts reporting. There are still more than 5,400 vote-by-mail ballots from that district left to count, according to a remaining-ballots count issued by the county Clerk-Recorder Office.

Gibson emerged as the clear leader in the race when the first results were released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, and that lead only grew as more precincts reported in. In a race with more than two candidates, one candidate must secure 50 percent of the vote plus one in order to avoid a runoff between the top two vote-getters.

Morro Bay businessman Jeff Eckles, Gibson's most serious challenger, received 33.7 percent of the vote. On Wednesday morning, he conceded defeat to Gibson in a comment on Gibson's Facebook page; each candidate congratulated the other, as well as third-place finisher Patrick Sparks (with 6.5 percent of the vote) for running a clean, issues-focused campaign.

In a post on his own Facebook page, Eckles wrote that he was relieved "to get back to my life" in the wake of the election.

This story was originally published June 6, 2018 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Bruce Gibson declares victory in 3-way race for SLO County District 2 supervisor."