Kenney Enney leads Paso Robles school board election, but race still too close to call
Kenney Enney has opened a lead of more than 400 votes in the special election for a seat on the Paso Robles school board, but the race remains too close to call, the San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder said Wednesday morning.
“There’s no calling the election until I have counted every last ballot,” Elaina Cano said. “Especially in a race this close. We still have hundreds of ballots to count.”
Enney and Angela Hollander were facing off in the special election for a seat on the district’s school board.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Enney was leading with 52.07% — 5,171 votes — according to the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office and Monterey County elections office.
Angela Hollander was trailing with 47.93%, or 4,759 votes, a difference of 412 votes.
At the first release of mail-in ballots at 8 p.m., the race was a virtual tie with Enney holding an advantage of six votes.
But Enney’s lead widened throughout the night as more ballots were tallied in two updates.
More than 31,000 people were registered to cast a ballot in the school district’s special election.
Candidates await final results in school board vote
After election night, Enney told The Tribune he was feeling “cautiously optimistic” but recognized that it was still too early to call the race.
“Regardless of the result, I’m happy people are paying attention to the important issues in the area,” he said.
When asked what his top priorities would be should he win, Enney said “expanding charter schools, expanding vocational schools and expanding discipline in the high school especially.”
He also noted that school test scores need to be improved and added that he’s been visiting schools in the Clovis Unified School District to understand their models of school discipline, which he said appeared to be working well.
Hollander told The Tribune she’s saying “upbeat” as she waits for more election results to come in.
“I love this community, and I’ve loved hearing about what’s on their mind,” she said. “I work with the students every day, and I think it’s such a gift to be doing so.”
While on the phone with The Tribune Wednesday morning, Hollander said she was about to leave to go to Georgia Brown Elementary Schoo to read to a second-grader, and that she’s lately been busy working with the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo County as they finalize scholarships for college-bound high school seniors.
Cano said her office will work throughout the next few days to count the remaining ballots.
She expected to drop a large round of results by the end of Friday, she said.
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 10:17 AM.
