Recent vote tallies show Christina Fugazi is a little closer to becoming Stockton’s next mayor. And her opponent seems to agree.
San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti did not concede the race when reached by phone Friday night but acknowledged the results weren’t going his way, saying he doubted much would change as additional ballot counts are released.
“I’m trending in the wrong direction,” Patti said, noting that Fugazi’s lead appeared to be growing. “I don’t think a trend is going to reverse. I think it’s likely to continue as more votes come in.”
Fugazi, a long-time educator and public servant, has increased her lead over Patti to 3,329 votes, according to the latest ballot count released Friday evening by the county’s Registrar of Voters.
The former Stockton vice mayor has led the race consistently since the first ballot county returns after the polls closed Tuesday, with her margin continually increasing with each tally.
Reached by phone Friday night, Fugazi acknowledged the results were going in her favor but said it was still too soon to call the race.
“There are uncounted votes,” she said, “and I will wait for the final tally before declaring anything.”
According to local election data, more than 175,000 ballots have been counted in San Joaquin County as of Friday evening and there are about 86,000 more to be tallied. Though that number could increase over the next 10 days or so as vote-by-mail ballots continue to stream in over the next few days. All ballots postmarked by Nov. 5 and received by the county registrar within one week after Election Day will be counted.
There are also about 4,500 ballots thus far that have been challenged due to issues such as the registrar being unable to currently verify signatures or receiving ballots with unsigned identification envelopes that could ultimately be processed and counted as these voters are given an opportunity to correct any problems with their ballots.
There are nearly 379,000 registered voters in San Joaquin County, according to the county’s Registrar of Voters. Voter turnout out for the county currently for this general election cycle sits at about 68%.
Both Patti and Fugazi brought roughly eight years of elected experience to Stockton’s mayor’s race. Patti in his current role on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and Fugazi previous seat on the Stockton City Council, where she rose to become vice mayor.
But while Patti has highlighted his business background and focused on public-private partnership on the campaign trail, Fugazi has put her education career center stage.
Patti stated he would not change anything about the way he ran his campaign.
“I ran a great campaign,” Patti said. “There’s nothing I conceivably would have said, ‘Oh, well, we dropped the ball.’ We did everything that a good campaign should do.”
Fugazi says she is “incredibly grateful to the voters of Stockton for their support” and acknowledged the efforts of her opponent.
“It’s an honor for me to witness such enthusiasm and engagement from our community,” Fugazi said. “And I do want to extend my sincere thanks to Tom for his commitment and dedication to our community.”
The Registrar of Voters will continue to release updated elections results for the county every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by 7 p.m. until all the votes have been counted.