San Diego squeakers

Affirming the age-old axiom that every vote matters, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters still has 7,000 uncounted provisional ballots to tally. With 92.4% of voters using a mail-in, absentee, or provisional ballot, five races are still too close to call.

In the Warner Unified School District, candidates Greg Doxey and Terry Cox are tied at 352 votes each for the third open seat. California Election Law allows for the flipping of a coin or a lot draw – names in hat or shortest straw – to break a tie.

The City of Santee has a squeaker going on in its race in District Four of their city council. Dustin Trotter remains only six votes ahead of Samm Hurst. They were tied in early vote counting.

After 289,805 votes counted so far in the San Diego County supervisor race, former state senator Joel Anderson leads Poway Mayor Steve Vaus by only 283 votes – a .10% percent margin.

In the Dehesa School District, three votes separate candidates Maria Sanchez and Karen Kirkpatrick.

In the Lemon Grove School District, with 13,866 votes cast, April Lindsey has come from behind to eight votes behind opponent Greg Shibley.

Close, but not as critical as the delayed counting of ballots in 2014 when then former city councilman Carl DeMaio received his invitation to head to Washington DC as a newly elected freshman congressman, only to be denied that seat in the final days of the count, losing to incumbent Representative Scott Peters in the 52nd Congressional District.

What happened in Coronado with the challenger to incumbent Mayor Richard Bailey? Long-time resident Kirk Horvath filed papers as a write-in candidate, “to wake the people of Coronado up, to encourage them to ask questions and get involved,” he wrote in a pre-election statement.

Evidently Coronado voters didn’t need to wake up, with Horvath receiving only 61 votes of the 7,234 cast – 99.17% for Bailey.

Developers lost big time in Oceanside with a two-thirds resounding defeat of Measure L, which would have allowed home development of the agriculturally protected areas in the San Luis Ray Valley.

Increased taxes and bond measures lost in six of the nine city, school and fire districts that were asking voters for more money. Increased taxes and bond indebtedness passed only in City of Imperial Beach, Dehesa School District, and La Mesa Spring Valley Elementary District.

The counting needs to be completed and certified to the Secretary of State by December 3.