Here’s how many ballots remain to be counted in each SLO County city race
We aren’t done yet, San Luis Obispo County.
As the process to determine the country’s president draws on, San Luis Obispo County election officials are preparing to process just under 50,000 more local ballots received at their office on or after Election Day.
According to the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office, 47,194 vote-by-mail and 2,362 provisional ballots remained to be counted in San Luis Obispo County as of Thursday night. An additional 127 ballots cast on Election Day also remain to be counted, according to a report from the elections office.
According to state law, vote-by-mail ballots received up to 17 days after Election Day may be counted as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. Provisional ballots, including conditional ballots cast by people who registered on Election Day, are subject to inspection by local election officials before they are counted.
The data shows that Election Night results comprised only about 70% of the total number of ballots cast in San Luis Obispo County this election, meaning many local races are less than three-quarters of the way to being finalized.
These 49,686 outstanding ballots could potentially impact a number of the tighter races across San Luis Obispo County, especially ones in which in-person voters significantly impacted Election Night percentages.
The county Clerk-Recorder’s Office was expected to conduct its first count of these remaining ballots Friday morning.
Ahead of that, here is a roundup of all the remaining ballots to be counted by jurisdiction, as well as a look at how many votes separate candidates in those contests.
Atascadero: Only 40 votes separate City Council candidates
There’s a lot of wiggle room in one of the tightest local races.
According to the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office, 5,760 ballots remain to be counted from Atascadero voters.
Charles Bourbeau took home the highest number of votes for Atascadero City Council on Election Night — 4,927 — so his position is likely mostly secure. Bourbeau led ahead of all other candidates in both in-person and vote-by-mail ballots that night; if that trend continues he’s heading to the council.
Considering the 40 votes that separate the next highest vote-getters, Mark Dariz and Tori Keen, however, the next vote counts could be the difference between being on the council and not.
As of Election Night, Dariz had a very narrow lead of Keen with 4,340 votes compared with Keen’s 4,300.
That lead was due in large part to a higher number of in-person votes cast for Dariz — 274 compared to Keen’s 219.
Keen was narrowly ahead of Dariz in vote-by-mail ballots, however, with 4,081 compared to Dariz’s 4,066.
If that trend continues once these new, mostly vote-by-mail ballots are counted, Keen could actually usurp Dariz as she makes her way to the council.
Meanwhile, though only 945 votes separate incumbent Atascadero Mayor Heather Moreno from challenger Jerry Tanimoto, her lead appears more secure based off of the voting trend. Moreno led the mayoral candidates in both vote-by-mail and in-person voting.
Grover Beach: Incumbents lead in Election Night results
Only about 67% of ballots cast in Grover Beach have been counted as of Thursday night, leaving 2,307 votes that have yet to be recorded, according to the county’s elections office.
This could definitely impact the Grover Beach mayoral and City Council races, as the distance between the top two vote-getters for the two-year council seat is only 69 votes. But other races are likely slightly more secure based upon VBM trends.
Incumbent Mayor Jeff Lee held down a 1,759-vote lead over challenger Elizabeth Doukas — making a victory Doukas not mathematically insurmountable, but less likely given that Lee led her in both in-person voting and vote-by-mail ballots on Election Night.
It’s a similar story for the two open four-year seats on the City Council, where incumbent Karen Bright and newcomer Anna Miller held the top spots with 2,178 votes and 1,635 votes, respectively.
Miller was ahead of next highest vote-getter Will Bruce by about 449 votes, and was ahead of fourth-place challenger Daniel Rushing by 573 votes. Candidate Joseph Holmes trailed behind Miller by 670 votes.
Though some of those margins are certainly attainable within the remaining 2,307 votes to be counted, it’s important to note that Bright and Miller led in both in-person and vote-by-mail ballots on Election Night, indicating voting trends in their favor.
For the two-year Grover Beach City Council seat, only 69 votes separate current leader Robert Robert and candidate David Duringer — meaning that race is still open to some massive shifts as more ballots are counted.
Though Duringer outperfomed Robert in terms of in-person votes —116 compared to 106 votes — Robert received more vote-by-mail ballots. He had 1,327 compared to Duringer’s 1,158.
Morro Bay: Most ballots counted, still room for reversals
Morro Bay so far has the accolade of being the San Luis Obispo County city closest to having 100% of its ballots counted.
According to the data from the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office, only about 1,842 ballots remain uncounted in Morro Bay, meaning that election officials are just under 76% of the way through the coastal city’s count.
Both the City Council and mayoral races are still close enough however to not be able to with significant confidence say they are over and done.
For mayor, John Headding is leading ahead of John Weiss by 271 votes.
That margin could widen after the next round of VBM results as Headding performed significantly better with mail-in voters and Weiss performed better with in-person voters.
In the City Council mashup, only 40 votes separate the top two vote-getters, Robert “Red” Davis and Laurel Barton, but they have a healthy padding of more than 450 votes above the third-highest vote-getter, Betty Winholtz. Unless a significant shakeup happens, it’s likely Davis and Barton, both of whom performed well with vote-by-mail voters, are heading to City Council.
San Luis Obispo: Harmon far ahead, City Council seats closer
In San Luis Obispo, Mayor Heidi Harmon has likely secured her third term and the city is on its way to electing its first-ever all female City Council.
Though a seemingly large number of ballots — 7,446 — remain to be counted, those make up just over a quarter of the total votes cast by San Luis Obispo residents this election.
Mathematically, it is impossible for Harmon’s challengers Don Hedrick and Sandra Marshall-Eminger to make up the distance between themselves and Harmon, even if every not-yet-counted vote went to either of their campaigns.
The next highest mayoral vote-getter, Cherisse Sweeney, conceded the race Election Night when she was behind more than 4,100 votes.
Though the margin is narrower among San Luis Obispo City Council candidates, incumbent councilwoman Andrea “Andy” Pease (8,002 votes) and former councilwoman Jan Marx (6,682 votes) both had solid leads over challengers Abrianna Torres (5,467), James Papp (3,743), Kelly Evans (3,602), Robin Wolf (1,870), Erik Long (1,830) and Jeffery Specht (1,326).
Torres, who is 1,216 votes away from a spot on the City Council, had the highest number of in-person votes of all of the candidates with 445 ballots cast in her favor on Election Day. Meanwhile, both Pease and Marx led in vote-by-mail ballots.
Pismo Beach: close numbers could impact council switch-up
With unofficial Election Night results in, incumbent Pismo Beach Mayor Ed Waage was headed for a third term with 58.5% of the vote, while Scott Newton (34.8%) and Marcia Guthrie (24.5%) appeared to have secured their spots on the City Council.
If these election results hold over the coming days, longtime councilman Erik Howell, with 22.8% of the vote, has been unseated from the City Council.
According to data from the SLO County Clerk-Recorder’s office, there are 1,483 ballots remaining to be counted in Pismo Beach, roughly 25% of the total votes cast.
Based on that data, though it would definitely be possible for mayoral challenger Dan Shadwell to get more votes, it’s unlikely he will be able to significantly make up the 703-vote lead Waage had as of Election Night.
Meanwhile on the council, it is all but impossible for candidates Debora Ann Lossing and James Robert Prichard to overcome their Election Night losses. Each would have to add virtually every one of the outstanding Pismo Beach votes, while others didn’t increase at all, in order to make it onto the council.
Howell on the other hand, could potentially overcome his 123-vote deficit behind Guthrie over the coming returns and potentially keep his spot on the council. But given how far ahead newcomer Newton was as of Election Night, it appears no matter what one of the sitting councilmembers, Guthrie or Howell will lose their seat.
Meanwhile the Clerk-Recorder’s canvas stated 5,058 ballots from Paso Robles had yet to be counted, but a narrowing down of how many ballots that was by district was not provided.
This year marked Paso Robles’ first ever district election. District 3 went unchallenged to solo candidate Steve Gregory, while Councilman Fred Strong led opponent Jacob Allred by 488 votes.
Strong was ahead of Allred in both in-person and mail-in voting.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect new numbers on Pismo Beach’s ballot count, as well as correct an error in the number of votes separating Howell and Guthrie. It is 123.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 9:13 AM.
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