Here’s your guide to the winners and losers of SLO County’s elections
With the election almost two weeks past, San Luis Obispo County is slowly inching toward 100% of ballots being counted.
As of Friday, 159,440 ballots have been counted by the county Clerk-Recorder’ss Office, roughly 98% of the ballots received.
County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong warned that closing that 2% gap will take some time.
Gong told The Tribune on Monday that preparing the remaining ballots for counting is a day-by-day process. His office is currently processing provisional ballots which can take a lot of time, he said.
The office also has to wait for residents to “cure” or fix their vote-by-mail ballots that were unsigned or whose signatures did not match, he added. The deadline to do that is Nov. 23.
Gong said he currently anticipates either doing another count later this week, or waiting to do a final count sometime next week.
In the meantime, here’s a roundup of where the results for city councils, community services districts, school bond measures and more stand as of Friday, as well as the number of ballots that remain to be counted in those races.
Atascadero
Mayor Heather Moreno had secured re-election with 7,239 votes, about 43.6% of ballots cast. Charles Bourbeau and Mark Dariz won the two open seats on the Atascadero City Council, with 6,799 and 6,090 votes, respectively.
Atascadero’s Measure D sales tax measure passed with 58.5% of the vote.
Only 267 ballots remained to be counted in the city.
Grover Beach
Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee won re-election with 4,257 votes or 70.1% of the vote.
For City Council, Karen Bright and Anna Miller won the two open four-year seats with 30% and 22.8% of the vote, respectively. For the open two-year short term on the council, Robert Robert still held a small lead over David Duringer, though the two were separated by only 51 votes.
The city’s Measure F sales tax measure passed with 52.4% of the vote.
As of Friday, 161 Grover Beach ballots remained to be counted.
Morro Bay
In the closest San Luis Obispo County mayoral race, John Headding had narrowly secured a win with 3,433 votes or 50.8% of ballots.
Robert “Red” Davis and Laurel Barton won the two open city council seats with 27.6% and 26.8% of the vote, respectively.
Morro Bay’s Measure E sales tax measure easily passed with 58.4% of the vote.
Paso Robles
In Paso Robles’ District 4 election, Councilman Fred Strong easily secured his spot, with 62% of the vote.
Paso’s Measure J sales tax measure also passed with 56.4% of the vote.
There were 371 more Paso Robles ballots to count as of Friday.
Pismo Beach
Pismo Beach Mayor Ed Waage won re-election with 59.7% of the vote.
For City Council, Scott Newton secured a seat with 35.4% of the vote but the battle between incumbents Marcia Guthrie and Erik Howell was still ongoing.
As of Nov. 13, the two were separated by only 47 votes.
With 65 ballots remaining to be counted, the City Council decision is up in the air until the final count.
Pismo Beach’s Measure B transient occupancy tax passed easily with 80.9% of the vote.
San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon won re-election with 52.5% of the vote.
Andrea “Andy” Pease won one of the open seats for San Luis Obispo City Council, with 23.6% of the vote. Former mayor Jan Marx leads for the other seat with 19.4%, 513 votes ahead of the next highest vote-getter, Abrianna Torres.
About 628 ballots — mainly provisional ones — remained to be counted in San Luis Obispo.
The city’s Measure G sales tax measure passed with 57.9% of the vote.
Community services districts
- Cambria: Harry Farmer, Karen A. Dean and Tom Gray won spots on the community services district’s board of directors.
- Ground Squirrel Hollow: Allen Duckworth, Kevin Mccamy and Scott Simons will join the CSD’s board of directors.
- Nipomo: Richard Eugene Malvarose and Bob Blair won spots on the CSD’s board of directors.
- Oceano: Linda Austin, Shirley D. Gibson and Cynthia Replogle will join the CSD’s board of directors.
- Templeton: Pamela Jardini, Navid Fardanesh and Debra J. Logan won spots on the CSD’s board of directors.
School bonds, districts
- Atascadero Unified School District: Mary Kay Mills, Terri E. Switzer and Corinne C. Kuhnle will join the district’s governing board. The district’s bond measure looked like it will narrowly miss the 55% required to pass. As of Friday, it had 54.2% of the vote with only 330 ballots left to count in the district.
- Paso Robles Joint Unified School District: Dorian K. Baker, Chris Bausch and Jim Reed will join the district’s governing board, while the jury is still out on whether Nathan Williams or Jim Cogan will be the fourth member. The two were separated by only 110 votes as of Friday. There were 561 ballots still to be counted in the district.
- San Luis Coastal Unified School District: Kathryn Eisendrath Rogers and Eve Dobler-Drew will join the school district’s governing board.
- San Miguel Joint Unified District: Constantino Victor Delgado and Michael J. Sanders will join the school district’s board. Meanwhile, the school district’s bond measure looked like it could narrowly fail. As of Friday, it had 54.8% votes in favor, but it needed 55% to pass. Only 100 ballots remained to be counted.
- Shandon Joint Unified School District: Flint Speer won a seat on the school district’s board. Meanwhile, the school district’s bond measure had easily passed with 62.3% of the vote.
- Templeton Unified School District: Nelson Yamagata, Ted Dubost and Mendi Swan won seats on the school district board.
- San Luis Obispo County Community College District: Mary T. Strobridge won a seat on the community college district board.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misspelled Cynthia Replogle’s name.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 2:50 PM.
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