A new batch of vote counts was released by SLO County. Check out the latest election results

Over a week after Election Day, the elections office continues to count ballots and tally up vote totals for races across San Luis Obispo County.

As of Thursday, the elections office had tabulated another 4,800 ballots, bringing the running count of ballots accounted for up to 103,348.

Over 48,000 ballots are still left to count, according to the Nov. 7 estimates.

The elections office will continue counting ballots throughout the month and is 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 are the latest numbers for local races for city councils, mayors, school boards and more.

Who is leading in SLO County mayor and city council races?

It’s been a week since the first vote count on Election Night. In the latest round of results, some races remained as tight as ever, while others seem to be headed toward clearly decided winners.

In the race for Paso Robles City Council, the nail-biting battle between Kris Beal and Sharon Roden for the District 1 seat remained one of the tightest races in SLO County.

As of the 11:15 a.m. ballot drop on Thursday, Beal was leading at 42% to Roden’s 40.8%. In raw numbers, it was 807 to 783.

The gap between them widened only slightly since the last vote count, adding 11 votes to Beal’s now 24-vote lead. It was also up from the 16-vote gap that separated them on Election Night.

Linda George trailed far behind at 17.2%.

Meanwhile in the race for the District 3 seat, little changed since the last ballot drop, with Steve Gregory holding onto his early lead with 44.3% of the vote to Michael Rivera’s 34.1%. Jeff Carr was third at 21.7%. Gregory’s lead stood at 241 votes as of Thursday — 12 more from the last count.

In Atascadero, two front-runners continued to hold onto their leads in the close race for two open spots on the City Council.

Originally separated by less than 2 percentage points, Seth Peek and Mark Dariz held onto their lead over Tori Keen, who trailed by 287 votes in the most recent ballot drop on 11:15 a.m. on Thursday. This was slightly closer than her 318-vote deficit in the last count.

The candidates’ percentage points remained relatively the same since the last ballot drop, with Peek still at 34.1%, Dariz at 34% and Keen at a slightly higher 32%.

Support for both cities’ proposed sales tax measures, I-24 and L-24, grew slightly in the latest vote count with 55% voting yes in Paso Robles and 71% in Atascadero.

In the South County, first-time candidate Kassi Dee opened up a 234-vote lead over Debbie Peterson in the race to become Grover Beach’s next mayor. This was up from 189 votes in the last count and 118 after Election Night.

The gap continued to grow in Dee’s favor, with the newcomer holding 43% of the vote to Peterson’s 36.8% as of 11:15 a.m. on Thursday.

In the District 3 City Council race, Kathy McCorry held a 52.8% lead over Marsha Bolyanatz’s 47.2%, but their separation only amounted to 36 votes — 8 more from the last ballot drop.

In District 2, the recall of Councilmember Dan Rushing slipped slightly since the last release but continued to head toward approval regardless, with 55.8% of voters endorsing the recall as of Thursday’s ballot drop.

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, kept heading toward a clear win on Thursday with 65.3% of the ballots cast voting yes, on par with the previous count.

In the Arroyo Grande mayoral race, incumbent Caren Ray Russom was on a clear path to reelection after holding onto her lead of more than 30 points on and since Election Night. As of Thursday morning, Russom led challenger Gaea Powell by almost double her votes, 65.5% to 35.5%. In raw numbers, that is 4,633 to Powell’s 2,442.

In the race for the District 3 City Council seat, another newcomer, Jamie Maraviglia, maintained her early 15-point lead. As of Thursday, she was comfortable ahead of Marlea Harmon 56.5% to 43.5%, only a slightly smaller gap that the previous drop.

In Pismo Beach, incumbent Mayor Ed Waage and City Councilmembers Scott Newton and Marcia Guthrie continued to dominate the race to retain their seats.

The margins did not significantly change in any of the races. For mayor, Waage maintained his wide lead over Kevin Kreowski, 64.9% to 35.1%. In the council race, Newton was first with 47.8%, followed by Guthrie with 36.9% and challenger Gianni Scangarello still trailing significantly at 15.3%.

Both cities’ sales tax measures continued to gain support as of Thursday, with 65.6% approving in Arroyo Grande and 62.6% saying yes in Pismo Beach, sending both toward passing.

Finally, in San Luis Obispo, the most recent results for City Council races confirmed what already seemed to be decided in the last ballot drop.

As of the most recent count on Thursday morning, incumbent Mayor Erica Stewart secured an easy win over Donald E. Hedrick, 85.8% to 14.2%.

In the race for two open seats on City Council, Jan Marx held onto her top spot at 39%, to be joined on the board by newcomer Mike Boswell at 34.3%. Challengers John Drake and Felicia Lewis appeared well out of the race at 17% and 9.8%, respectively.

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.

Over $100,000 was poured into the ballot’s opposition campaign, mostly from out-of-state sources in the final weeks leading up to the election, but its seems to no avail.

As of 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, the measure kept the same 59% approval rate since the last ballot count, sending it toward approval.

If passed, the measure would freeze the land use on the long-since closed 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, the results stayed mostly the same from the last vote count, and multiple races remained closely contested with narrow front-runners holding onto their leads.

In Atascadero, the race remained close, but unchanged.

Candidate Joey Arnold was still the top vote-getter at 22.1%, followed by Corinne Kuhnle at 20.9% and Jodi Taylor at 19.9%, all heading toward earning spots on the school board for the three open seats. Matt Pennon trailed well behind at 17.3%, but Veronica DeCoster claimed fourth at 19.8%, only 23 votes behind Taylor.

Meanwhile in Paso Robles, vote counts barely changed from the last tally, and Nathan Williams, Laurene D. McCoy, Leo Castillo and Kenney Enney held onto their leads for the four open school board seats as of the Thursday morning ballot drop.

in Trustee Area 3, Williams lead challenger Hunter Breese 64.6% to 35.3%.

McCoy took 55.9% of the vote to Tim Gearhart’s 44.1% in Trustee Area 5.

In Trustee Area 6, Castillo held onto his steady 47-vote lead over Adelita Hiteshew from the last count, now 51.6% to 48.4%.

And in Trustee Area 7, Enney’s solid advantage over Tracy Dauterman remained the same, 58.4% to 41.6%.

In the race for three open school board seats in Templeton, Ted Dubost and Cheryl Parks nearly tied for top vote-getter at 27.8% and 27.3% respectively, followed by Matt Allison at 26.9%. Jason Tesarz trailed well behind at 18.1%.

In the San Luis Coastal school district, Erica Flores Baltodano was poised to unseat Eve Hinton, 72.6% to 27.4%.

In the Cayucos Elementary School District, Peter Schuler and Dan Puett remained ahead for the two open board seats.

Puett held an overwhelming led over Susan Brownell 78.5% to 21.5% in Trustee Area 5, but the Trustee Area 4 race remained closer with Schuler just 22 votes ahead of Scott Smith at 55.9% to 44.2%

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 54.3% to 45.7% in Trustee Area 1, Dee Santos ahead of Paul Hively 53.3% to 46.7% in Trustee Area 3, and Vicki Meagher still leading Mike Fuller 51.2% to 48.8% 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 Thursday, Atascadero’s Measure B-24 remained the only one in passing territory — but barely — with 55.6% of voters approving it.

Templeton’s school bond continued to trail slightly with 54.5% approving, while Lucia Mar’s measure was in the worst shape with 53.8% 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 74-vote lead over Charles Varni in Division 5, which widened a bit from a 61-vote lead after Election Night and grew by one vote since the last ballot count, but still amounted to a 56.9% to 43.2% advantage. In Division 1, Linda Austin continued to lead with 78.3% of the vote to opponent Angela Smith’s 21.8% as of Thursday morning.

In the Nipomo Community Services District board race, John Joyce led at exactly 50% with Philip Henry III taking second at 38.9% for the two open seats on the board as of 11:15 a.m. Thursday. Challenger James Wejrowki stayed far behind with only 11.5%.

In the Port San Luis Harbor District race, Richard Scangarello is set to fill the only open seat in Division 2 with 59.8% of the vote to Katie Lichtig’s 40.2% 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 garnering even more support as of Thursday morning, with 76.1% 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 seats up for election have been claimed incumbent candidates.

For Congress, Jimmy Panetta will represent District 19 with 70.6% of the vote, while Salud Carbajal claimed an early victory in District 24 with 62.8%, as of Thursday. Both races were called by the Associated Press.

In the state Legislature, the incumbent representatives claimed continued to head to comfortable wins for all four seats up for grabs.

In the State Senate, John Laird was cruising to victory in District 17 with 66.5% of the vote, while Monique Limon was well ahead in District 21, earning 62.7% of the vote by Thursday at 11:40 a.m.

In the State Assembly, both Dawn Addis in District 30 and Gregg Hart in District 37 were heading toward reelection with 64.6% and 61% of the vote on Thursday morning.

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 and future President Donald Trump, according to the vote count.

As of 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, 56% of ballots counted were cast for Harris, compared to Trump’s 41.5%.

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 Thursday’s update, about 48,000 ballots remain to be counted, and voters can expect continued updates about once a week for the coming weeks.

All ballots are now in — Wednesday was the last day the county could receive mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day or forwarded from other counties.

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.

According to Cano, the county must certify its election results by Dec. 3.

This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 2:44 PM with the headline "A new batch of vote counts was released by SLO County. Check out the latest election results."

Chloe Shrager

The Tribune

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Chloe Shrager is the courts and crimes reporter for The Tribune. She grew up in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in Political Science. When not writing, she enjoys surfing, backpacking, skiing and hanging out with her cat, Billy Goat. Support my work with a digital subscription

Kaytlyn Leslie

The Tribune

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Kaytlyn Leslie writes about business and development for The San Luis Obispo Tribune. Hailing from Nipomo, she also covers city governments and happenings in San Luis Obispo. She joined The Tribune in 2013 after graduating from Cal Poly with her journalism degree.