SLO County releases new batch of vote totals. See the latest election results
The elections office released the latest vote totals for races around San Luis Obispo County on Friday, adding another 15,690 to the running count.
Friday’s batch was the first since Election Night and has whittled the remaining ballots down to about 53,000, based on the last estimates on Thursday.
The elections office will continue counting ballots throughout the month and was expected to release new updates at least once a week until Dec. 3, when it is required by the state to certify the results of the election.
Here’s a look at how the latest numbers have affected local races for city councils and mayors, school boards and more.
Who is leading in SLO County mayor and city council races?
With the first ballot release since Election Night, a number of tight races flipped, while other candidates rested easy on their early leads.
In the Paso Robles City Council race, Kris Beal and Sharon Roden remained locked in one of the tightest races anywhere in SLO County, in the battle for the District 1 seat.
The pair were separated by a mere 13 votes with Beal in the lead at 41.82% and Roden right behind at 41.14% as of the 5 p.m. ballot drop on Friday. In raw numbers, it was 785 to 772.
That’s slightly closer than the total after Election Night, when the gap was 16 votes.
Meanwhile, Steve Gregory maintained his early lead in the race for the District 3 seat with 44.2% of the vote to Michael Rivera’s 34.1. Jeff Carr was third at 21.7%. Gregory’s lead stood at 229 votes as of Friday.
In Atascadero, the initially close race started to show more clear front-runners for two open spots on the City Council.
Previously separated by less than 2 percentage points, Seth Peek and Mark Dariz took a more significant lead over Tori Keen, who trailed by 318 votes in the most recent ballot drop. Peek was at 34.1%, Dariz at 34.0% and Keen at 31.85%.
Both cities’ proposed sales tax measures, I-24 and L-24, continued to lead with 54.8% of voters approving in Paso Robles and 70.8% in Atascadero.
In the South County, newcomer Kassi Dee widened her narrow early lead over Debbie Peterson in the race to become Grover Beach’s next mayor. Dee had 42.5% of the vote to Peterson’s 37.3%, a difference of 189 votes and up from 118 after Election Night.
In the race for the District 3 seat on the City Council, Kathy McCorry had 52.3% of the vote to Marsha Bolyanatz’s 47.7%, but that amounted to only 28 votes.
Notably, the recall of District 2 Councilmember Dan Rushing continued to garner support, with 56.6% of voters approving the recall as of the latest release.
The city’s Measure G-24, which would repeal increased water and wastewater rates passed by the council to help fund the now defunct Central Coast Blue project, was also on its way to victory as of the Friday vote count, with 65% of the ballots cast voting yes.
In the Arroyo Grande mayoral race, incumbent Caren Ray Russom was headed to reelection after taking a lead of more than 30 points on Election Night. As of Friday, she led challenger Gaea Powell 65% to 35%, or a difference of more than 2,000 votes.
The same was true for newcomer Jamie Maraviglia, who also took an early 15-point lead in the race for the city’s District 3 seat. She was ahead of Marlea Harmon 56.8% to 41.2% with the latest update.
In Pismo Beach, incumbent Mayor Ed Waage and city councilmembers Scott Newton and Marcia Guthrie continued to dominate the race to retain their seats as of the Friday evening count.
Waage maintained his wide lead over Kevin Kreowski by a margin of 65% to 35%. In the council race, Newton had 47.7%, followed by Guthrie with 37% and challenger Gianni Scangarello with 15.3%.
Both cities’ sales tax measures were still passing as of 5 p.m. Friday, with 65.3% approving in Arroyo Grande and 62.3% saying yes in Pismo Beach.
Finally, the San Luis Obispo City Council races already seem to be decided.
As of the most recent count at 5 p.m. on Friday, Mayor Erica Stewart secured an easy win over Donald E. Hedrick, 85.6% to 14.4%.
Jan Marx remained the top vote-getter for council at 39.2%, followed by newcomer Mike Boswell at 34.3% in the race for two open seats. Trailing the frontrunners and well out of the race were John Drake at 16.7% and Felicia Lewis at 9.8%.
Will Morro Bay’s battery storage facility measure pass?
With no contested city council or school board spots, the only decision on Morro Bay voters’ ballots this election was over Measure A-24.
As of 5 p.m. on Friday, the measure was heading toward approval with 59% of voters saying yes.
If passed, the measure would freeze the land use on the long-since used Morro Bay Power Plant property as visitor-serving commercial, essentially blocking the city from approving a battery storage facility proposed to be built at the site.
However, the measure may no longer help in blocking the project. Vistra Corp., the company heading up the proposal of the new facility, recently paused its application with the city and announced plans to pursue a new state approval process that would bypass local jurisdiction.
School board results across SLO County
As for school boards, multiple closely fought races saw updates in who claimed front-runner status in the most recent vote update.
In Atascadero, candidate Joey Arnold was the top vote-getter with the new vote totals added in, at 22.2%, followed by Corinne Kuhnle at 21% and Jodi Taylor at 19.9%, in the race for three open seats. Following the leaders were Veronica DeCoster at 19.8% and Matt Pennon at 17.2%.
In Paso Robles, Nathan Williams, Laurene D. McCoy, Leo Castillo and Kenney Enney held their leads for the four open seats.
Williams had 64.6% to 35.3% for Hunter Breese in Trustee Area 3.
McCoy was at 56.3% to 43.7% for Tim Gearhart in Trustee Area 5.
Castillo had a 47-vote lead over Adelita Hiteshew in Trustee Area 6, 51.7% to 48.3%.
And Enney maintained his solid advantage over Tracy Dauterman, 58.4% to 41.6% in Trustee Area 7.
In Templeton, Ted Dubost at 27.9%, Cheryl Parks at 27.3% and Matt Allison at 26.7% held similarly solid leads over Jason Tesarz, 18.1%, in a race for three open seats.
In the San Luis Coastal school district, Erica Flores Baltodano was poised to unseat Eve Hinton, 72.1% to 27.9%.
In the Cayucos Elementary School District, Peter Schuler and Dan Puett remained ahead for the two open board seats. Schuler had 54.2% of the vote to Scott Smith’s 45.8%. Puett led Susan Brownell, 78% to 22%.
In the South County, the three Lucia Mar school district incumbents continued to hold comfortable leads in their bids for reelection with Don Stewart leading Paul Bischoff 54% to 46% in Trustee Area 1, Dee Santos ahead of Paul Hively 53% to 47% in Trustee Area 3, and Vicki Meagher leading Mike Fuller 51.2% to 48.4% in Trustee Area 4.
Atascadero, Lucia Mar and Templeton school districts also had school bonds on the ballot. Each measure must be approved by a threshold of 55% yes votes.
As of 5 p.m. on Friday, only Atascadero’s Measure B-24 was in positive territory — but barely — with 55.3% of voters approving it.
Templeton’s school bond continued to trail with only 54.2% approving, while Lucia Mar’s measure was in the worst shape at 53.5% saying yes.
Latest results from CSDs and Port San Luis Harbor District
In the race for two seats on the Oceano Community Services District board, Shirley Gibson held a 73-vote lead over Charles Varni in Division 5, which narrowed a bit from a 61-vote lead after Election Night but still amounted to a 57% to 43% advantage. Linda Austin continued to lead handily in Division 1 with 78.1% of the vote to opponent Angela Smith’s 21.9%.
In the Nipomo Community Services District board, John Joyce at 49.8% and Philip Henry III at 39.2% maintained their strong, early leads for the two open seats on the board as of 5 p.m. Friday, beating out challenger James Wejrowki at 11.1%
One seat was up for grabs in Division 2 of the Port San Luis Harbor District, which Richard Scangarello is set to fill with 60% of the vote to Katie Lichtig’s 40% at the latest ballot drop.
On the North Coast, the Cambria Community Healthcare District’s Measure C-24 to improve the district’s facilities was still garnering huge support as of Friday evening, with 75.8% of voters in favor.
The measure requires a two-thirds vote and the simultaneous approval of Proposition 5 to pass.
Who is ahead in state races?
All six state races up for election appear to have been all but won by their incumbent candidates.
For Congress, Jimmy Panetta will represent District 19 with 69.9% of the vote, while Salud Carbajal claimed an early victory in District 24 with 62.7%, as of 5 p.m. Friday. Both races were called by the Associated Press.
In the state Legislature, the incumbent representatives claimed and maintained early leads for all four seats up for grabs.
In the State Senate, John Laird is cruising to victory in District 17 with 66.2% of the vote, while Monique Limon is well ahead in District 21, earning 62.4% of the vote by Friday at 5 p.m.
In the State Assembly, Dawn Addis was heading for a smooth win in District 30 with 64.1% of the vote, while Gregg Hart remained ahead in District 37 with 61% of the vote on Friday evening.
Did SLO County voters favor Harris or Trump?
Contrary to the elections’ nationwide results, San Luis Obispo County voters significantly favored Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, according to the vote count.
As of 5 p.m. on Friday, 55.7% of ballots counted were cast for Harris, compared to Trump’s 42%.
The totals were a near match to 2020, when President Joe Biden took home 55.3% of the San Luis Obispo County vote, while Trump garnered 42.2%.
When will results be finalized?
After Friday’s update, about 53,000 ballots remain to be counted, and voters can expect continued updates for the coming weeks.
With an unprecedented number of provisional ballots, San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano said the election tallying may take more time to certify than usual.
Ballots received by the county up to a week after Election Day are still eligible to be counted as long as they are postmarked no later than Nov. 5.
According to Cano, the county must certify its election results by Dec. 3.
This story was originally published November 8, 2024 at 5:10 PM with the headline "SLO County releases new batch of vote totals. See the latest election results."
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