Updated: 8 a.m. Wednesday with the latest election results
Preliminary results Tuesday night showed San Joaquin County voters were receptive to passing Proposition 50, which would redraw California’s congressional districts.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, with ballots representing 32% of the county’s registered voters, results showed 53.3% of voters in favor and 45.7% against the proposition.
Statewide, several news agencies quickly called the race in favor of the proposition passing. With Proposition 50 was passing with 63.8% in favor and 36.2% against.
Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale has predicted an eventual turnout of 55% to 70% of registered voters. If it comes to pass, it would be considered a strong turnout for a special election.
“The turnout is probably going to be closer to 55 percent,” Hale said. “We thought we would have more numbers at the polls, but around 25,000 voters cast a ballot at the polls .”
On election night volunteers waited for more ballots to arrive from polling locations, so they can be scanned and counted. When a large truck of ballots pulled into the warehouse, there was a loud cheer from the workers.
Hale emphasized that more ballots will be counted during the week, and it is too soon to tell what the final number may be.
Early results provide an initial idea of the final result. A majority of the early ballots that were counted are mailed-in or dropped off.
The in-person results have the potential to lean more Republican after President Donald Trump’s criticism of mail-in voting during the election, calling the election “rigged” because of mail-in ballots.
Proposition 50 was designed to redraw California’s congressional districts in a way that would likely tip five seats from Republican to Democratic. Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed the proposition as a response to Texas, where the legislature recently redistricted in a way designed to flip five seats Republicans.
The Texas effort came at the behest of Trump, who wants to hold or augment the Republican edge in Congress during the 2026 mid-term elections. If Democrats were to take control of the House, it would deter Trump’s agenda during the final two years of his presidency.
The special election is also widely being seen as a political gamble for Newsom, one that could advance or detract from his own presidential ambitions depending on the outcome.
As both Democrats and Republicans campaigned for voters on Proposition 50, their messages were similar at times, both saying democracy was at stake.
Opponents sounded the alarm about taking power away from the independent bi-partisan commission that has drawn the lines in recent years after the results of the U.S. Census are released every 10 years.
Supporters cited Trump’s call on states to gerrymander their districts in the GOP’s favor.
San Joaquin County’s final vote on Proposition 50 may differ significantly from the state’s overall. It has more at stake than many other counties.
Passage of Proposition 50 would result in profound changes in congressional representation locally. The new lines would slice the county into as many as five congressional districts. The city of Lodi would be divided among three districts. Stockton’s lines would be redrawn as well.
The county is represented in Congress by Rep. Josh Harder, D-Tracy, whose district encompasses most of the district, and Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, with a portion of the county toward the south.
The county vote tends to vary from the state’s because the two major parties have both been competitive. The county’s voters gave the edge to Trump in November’s elections while the state overall heavily favored former Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential vote.
Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi is a Democrat and her predecessor, Kevin Lincoln, is a Republican.
The next release of the vote tally will not come until Friday.
Then, updates will come the following Monday, Wednesday and Friday as the last mail-in votes roll in and provisional ballots are verified or rejected.
Final certification is scheduled for Dec. 2.
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