Just over 90,000 ballots remain to be processed in San Joaquin County in an election where candidates in several local races have already clinched wins.
Vote-by-mail ballots received on or before Election Day make up the bulk of those that are unprocessed — 83,239, according to the Registrar of Voters Office. An additional 3,656 provisional and conditional ballots make up the rest of what has yet to be counted.
There are also nearly 2,000 ballots that were damaged or need further review, according to the registrar’s latest update.
“We are continuing to see a smooth process here in San Joaquin County,” Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale said Thursday night. “We have been verifying signatures, opening and scanning the vote-by-mail ballots that were dropped off or mailed by Election Day. We will have additional results posted tomorrow.”
The tally of unprocessed ballots is almost 5,000 higher than it was two years ago during the last general election. The reason for the jump was not immediately clear, but Hale was optimistic that between 46% and 60% of the county’s more than 415,611 registered voters would cast their ballots.
Hale said it appears there is a higher voter turnout than in 2022, during the last midterm elections, along with more registered voters. But she said, “We are generally where we expected to be at this point in the count.”
As of Wednesday, more than 121,000 ballots had been counted. Those votes put Stockton City Council incumbents Michele Padilla and Michael Blower in position to win Districts 1 and 3, respectively.
But in District 5, a unique situation is unfolding. Desiree Lynch, who formally withdrew from the race after being charged with six felonies in connection with election fraud, is besting Councilmember Brando Villapudua, 53.6%-46.4%. Villapudua himself was detained as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that he does not live in the district he represents.
Should Lynch win the vote, her attorney says she will not accept the position or serve on the City Council. That would then create a vacancy on the City Council that would first have to be legally established before councilmembers would be required, under the city charter, to appoint a qualified resident to temporarily fill the District 5 seat. The candidate who finishes second in the election would not automatically receive the seat.
As the vote count continues, the Associated Press did call some state and national races. Local winners included incumbent U.S. Reps. Josh Harder and Adam Gray and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom.
Harder, who represents California’s 9th Congressional District, and Gray, who represents District 13, are both Democrats who competed in districts that were redrawn after California voters approved Proposition 50 last year in response to Republican-led redistricting efforts in Texas.
The Texas effort backfired, however, as GOP candidates lost four of the five seats their new congressional map was designed to flip. The outcome was part of a Democratic sweep of the Lonestar State and an overall takeover of Congress, including the largest House majority the party has held since 2008.
In San Joaquin County, the election results remain unofficial. The registrar’s next update will come by Friday evening. Subsequent updates will be posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until all ballots are counted. California law requires counties to certify election results by Nov. 25 at 5 p.m.