It’s a week after the General Election, held November 5, 2024, and Alamedans are still waiting on the Alameda County Registrar of Voters (ACROV) to provide final counts and certify local races. A few more races have been resolved since our update the day after the election, but several other key races have yet to be called. This has caused a lot of frustration for voters, candidates, and Alameda County officials. Quicker automated tallies from voting machines have been replaced by longer count times as a result of the transition away from in-person voting. The culprit? A lack of staff to handle counting the blitz of vote-by-mail ballots.
The ACROV released the latest figures on Monday, November 11, just before 3 p.m. Although nearly 500,000 votes have now been tabulated, with the Registrar anticipating an 80% turnout of the nearly million registered voters in Alameda County, potentially as many as 300,000 votes have yet to be tallied. There are over 52,000 registered voters in the City of Alameda. If Alamedans vote at the same pace as the county, that would work out to over 41,500 ballots cast in the General Election. It is difficult to ascertain how many Alamedans’ ballots have been counted so far, as the ACROV has not provided figures, but it’s logical to assume the same proportion remains to be counted.
In the Alameda city races, as the vote tallies increase, the leaders have not changed; Michele Pryor and Greg Boller continue to hold the lead for the two available City Council seats. Thushan Amarasiriwardena has moved up to third place, ahead of incumbent Trish Herrera Spencer by just 52 votes. But they both trail the leaders by more than 1,600 votes. For the AUSD Board of Governors, the three leading candidates for the three open seats, Meleah Hall and incumbents Heather Little and Jennifer Williams each hold almost double the number of votes cast for Joyce Boyd.
No change in leaders of district races, however; if the standings hold up, Victor Flores will become the new BART District 7 Director, former Alameda Councilmember Jim Oddie will be seated as the EBMUD Ward 5 Director, and Luana Espana will take office as the Director for Ward 4 of EBRPD. They hold 11 – 28 point leads over other candidates in their respective races.
Other regional races that have been resolved in the past week include Lateefah Simon’s being declared the victor over Jennifer Tran in the race to succeed Barbara Lee in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the campaign to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, which also gained enough votes to pass. However, a winner has yet to be declared in the race for California State Senate District 7. In that race, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín leads AC Transit Director Jovanka Beckles by 20 points and is likely to be Nancy Skinner’s successor.
One additional statewide ballot measure has been approved since the initial tallies, while two other propositions have failed. Voters supported Measure 2 to fund bonds for public education, but rejected Measure 5, which would have lowered the threshold for bond approvals to 55%, and Measure 6, an anti-slavery proposition that would have eliminated involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Final tallies are still on tap for Propositions 32 and 34, which would raise the minimum wage and restrict spending by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and others, respectively.
| Measure | Yes | No | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 57.8% | 42.2% | Public Education Bonds |
| 3 | 62.2% | 37.8% | Right to Marry |
| 4 | 59% | 41% | Natural Resources Bonds |
| 5 | 44.4% | 55.6% | Lower Bond Approval Threshold |
| 6 | 46.2% | 53.8% | Remove Slavery Exception |
| 32 | 48.7% | 51.3% | Raise Minimum Wage |
| 33 | 39.2% | 60.8% | Expand Rent Control |
| 34 | 50.9% | 49.1% | Restrict Spending by Healthcare Provider |
| 35 | 67.3% | 32.7% | Permanently Fund Medi-Cal |
| 36 | 69.4% | 30.6% | Increase Sentences for Drug & Theft Crimes |
| Called races highlighted. Updated Nov. 11, 2024, 2:00 p.m. | |||
A reminder, standings in races that have not yet been called are subject to change until the election is certified. The Post will have another report once that happens. Stay with the Alameda Post for ongoing election returns and visit our election page for candidate information and other election news.
Adam Gillitt is the Publisher of the Alameda Post. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Adam-Gillitt.
