An estimated 215,800 voters cast ballots in Santa Barbara County, creating a record-high turnout surpassing 90% in Tuesday’s election.
Semi-official election night totals included 156,812 ballots, including 139,318 vote-by-mail ballots received before Tuesday and 17,494 ballots cast at in-person polling places.
Plus, there are thousands of ballots that still need to be counted.
County Registrar of Voters Joe Holland said Wednesday that officials are still tabulating an additional 59,000 or so vote-by-mail ballots that already arrived, as well as provisional ballots.
In addition, county ballots postmarked by Tuesday can arrive by Nov. 20 and be counted, likely adding to that total.
That surpasses 215,000 ballots, which would be 91.4% turnout for the 235,198 registered county voters in Tuesday’s election.
Holland said the turnout was extremely high, and historic for passing 200,000, which has never happened. The previous turnout record was the 182,264 ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, for 81.7% turnout, he said.
“Yesterday was just an amazing day. Everything went super smooth, and that’s really incredible given that we conducted this election like no other election we’ve ever done,” Holland said.
Tuesday was also historic as Santa Barbara County’s only 100% vote-by-mail election, in which every registered voter was mailed a ballot. About 75% of voters already participated this way, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the county to adapt to a system with fewer polling places, lots of ballot drop boxes and more early voters than usual.
Ballot drop boxes were placed all over the county and heavily used by voters, according to Holland.
“Of the total vote-by-mail ballots, it appears that 65% of them were dropped at either drop boxes or at one of our 35 polling places,” which were open Saturday through Tuesday, Holland said.
All of the ballot drop boxes were locked at 8 p.m. Tuesday, after one last collection by elections office personnel, and some may stay in place long term while others likely will be removed and put in storage, he said. Two property owners had backed out, in Los Alamos and Montecito, so 30 rather than 32 boxes were installed in early October.
Breaking down the polling places and driving North County ballots to the main County Elections Office in Santa Barbara (as usual) took some time, and made it a later night for elections staff than expected, according to Holland.
The next election results update are likely to be released on Monday.
Unofficial election results are still developing and could change as more ballots are received and processed in the following days.
County election results are typically finalized and certified several weeks after an election. The Board of Supervisors certified the March 3 election results on April 21, seven weeks later.
Election Night Results for Federal and State Seats
» 24th Congressional District: Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, was well ahead of Republican Andy Caldwell in semi-official election results, with 61.9% of the combined vote from San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
» 19th State Senate District: Democrat Monique Limón had 65.8% of the vote in election night results, to Republican Gary Michaels’ 34.2% of the vote. Limón currently represents the 37th District in the State Assembly.
» 35th State Assembly District: Incumbent Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-Templeton, was leading Dawn Addis, a Morro Bay Democrat, with 52% of the vote.
» 37th State Assembly District: Democrat Steve Bennett, a former Ventura County supervisor, easily beat Charles Cole, Republican of Santa Barbara, in election night results. Bennett had 69.3% of the vote to Cole’s 30.7%.
City Councils
In Buellton, Mayor Holly Sierra was ahead of Councilman Ed Andrisek and Isaac Oltmans in her re-election bid, with 59.6% of the vote.
For the City Council seats, John Sanchez and Elysia Lewis led the field of four candidates in election night results.
Carpinteria Councilman Wade Nomura and Natalia Alarcon were ahead in the race for two seats.
Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte won re-election over Councilman Roger Aceves, according to election night results, and incumbents Kyle Richards and Stuart Kasdin headed to victory in the five-candidate race for two seats.
Uncontested races in Guadalupe resulted in Mayor Ariston Julian being re-elected, and Antonio “Tony” Ramirez and Gilbert Robles won seats.
In Lompoc, Mayor Jenelle Osborne got 55.5% of the vote over Councilman Victor Vega. In a contested City Council seat, newcomer Jeremy Ball had 59.1% of the vote, ahead of incumbent Jim Mosby.
Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino had 66.3% of the vote Tuesday night, incumbent Councilman Mike Cordero was re-elected in an uncontested race, and newcomer Carlos Escobedo led the field for the District 1 seat with 43.9% of the vote.
Solvang voters cast ballots to oust Councilman Chris Djernaes in a recall election and elect retired sheriff Jim Thomas in his place. They also supported Charlie Uhrig as mayor, and Mark Infanti and Claudia Orona for council.
School Districts
» Santa Barbara County Board of Education: Four seats were on the ballot, and candidates ahead in election night results were Peter MacDougall for the Area 2 seat, Bruce Porter for the Area 3 seat, Michelle de Werd for the Area 4 seat and Joe Howell for the Area 6 seat.
» Santa Barbara Community College District: Three seats were on the ballot, and candidates ahead were Robert Miller, Veronica Gallardo and Anna Everett.
» Allan Hancock Joint Community College District: Two seats were on the ballot, and candidates ahead in election night results were Suzanne Levy and Jeff Hall.
In the Santa Barbara Unified School District board election with three seats on the ballot, incumbents Laura Capps and Wendy Sims-Moten were ahead, followed by Virgina Alvarez.
The Goleta Union school board race is typically not very competitive, but six candidates ran for two seats. Sholeh Jahangir and Vicki Ben-Yaacov were well ahead, followed by Patricia “Max” Rorty, Devany Bechler, Caroline Abate and Greg Hammel.
In the Carpinteria Unified School District Trustee Area No. 2, candidates Jaime Diamond and Aaron Smith were leading the five-candidate pack in results reported Tuesday night.
Diamond had 27.5% of the vote, Smith had 20.8%, and they were followed by Craig Cook with 19.9%, Rogelio Delgado with 16.2% and Jeff Weinbender with 15.2%.
Three Lompoc Unified school board seats were on the ballot, and in Tuesday night results, Janet Blevins, Tom Blanco and Bill Heath were in the top-three spots, ahead of Kathi Froemming, Gary Cox, Martin Casey and Alexander Murkison.
In the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, candidates Amy Lopez and Jack Garvin were leading the six-candidate field, and both reportedly had more than 20% of the vote.
The Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District had two seats on the ballot, and the top vote-getters were José Juan Ibarra and Stephen Luke, according to the County Elections Office.
Allison Schwartz and Christy Nordgren were leading in the Buellton Union School District race, followed closely by Sandra Enos-Jordan.
The Cold Spring School District, which has a bond measure on the ballot in addition to board members, reported Trevor Pattison and Gabrielle Haas ahead of Jordan Quivey, with vote-by-mail ballots and all precincts reporting.
In the College School District, Erica Jane Flores and Calisse Courtney were ahead of Kathleen Jackson.
Special Districts
Incumbents were ahead in the Goleta Water District board election, and many other special district races.
Local Ballot Measures
School district voters rejected the Cold Spring School District bond measure and supported the Goleta Union School District bond measure, according to semi-official election results.
Guadalupe voters approved a 1% sales tax increase, and Goleta voters were supporting a four-year mayoral term, an increase from two years.
County Voters Weigh in on Presidential Race, State Propositions
Santa Barbara County voters overwhelmingly backed Democrat Joe Biden for president, with 66.8% of the election night totals.
On California propositions, Santa Barbara County voters chose differently than statewide voters on Proposition 14, which would authorize bonds to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 19, which “allows homeowners who are over 55, disabled, or wildfire/disaster victims to transfer primary residence’s tax base to replacement residence. Changes taxation of family-property transfers. Establishes fire protection services fund,” according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Santa Barbara County voters California semi-official election results Proposition 14: Bonds to Continue Stem Cell Research 52.4% No 51.1% Yes Proposition 15: Property Tax to Fund Schools, Government Services 50.9% No 51.7% No Proposition 16: Affirmative Action in Government Decisions 55.3% No 56.1% No Proposition 17: Restores Right to Vote After Prison Term 60.6% Yes 59% Yes Proposition 18: 17-Year-Old Primary Voting Rights 53.7% No 55.1% No Proposition 19: Changes Certain Property Tax Rules 53.6% No 51.5% Yes Proposition 20: Parole Restrictions for Certain Offenses 65.4% No 62.3% No Proposition 21: Expands Governments’ Authority to Rent Control 62.5% No 59.8% No Proposition 22: App-Based Drivers and Employee Benefits 53.4% Yes 58.4% Yes Proposition 23: State Regulation for Kidney Dialysis Clinics 61.5% No 64% No Proposition 24: Amends Consumer Privacy Laws 57.6% Yes 56.1% Yes Proposition 25: Eliminates Money Bail System 51.4% No 55.4% No
Noozhawk’s Election 2020 section has all coverage of November candidates, issues and results as ballots are received and counted.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
