Primary election results brings leadership shift in Monterey County

UPDATE 6/30/2016 11:35 AM: Outgoing Assemblymember Luis Alejo has won election to the District 1 seat on the Monterey Board of Supervisors. Final election results published Wednesday show Alejo received 50.19% of the vote to avoid a runoff in November. Incumbent Fernando Armenta received just over 25% of the votes cast. Salinas City Councilmember Tony Barerra tallied 24%.

UPDATE 6/13/2016 5:55 PM: Updated Monterey County election results show the race for District 1 Supervisor is still too close to call. Assemblymember Luis Alejo still leads with 2,679 votes (48.66% of ballots cast). The race for second place continues to be close. Incumbent Fernando Armenta holds a small 23 vote lead over Salinas City Councilman Tony Barrera. Armenta has tallied 1,425 votes and Barrera has received 1,402. Although Alejo holds a large overall lead, he needs to receive a majority of votes cast in order to avoid a runoff election in November. The next scheduled update by the Elections Office is June 21.

UPDATE 6/8/2016 4 PM: Two of the three Monterey County Supervisor races have already been decided. The winners in the District 4 and 5 races have received more than 50 percent of the vote.

District 4 includes parts of southwest Salinas, Del Rey Oaks, and Marina. Incumbent Jane Parker easily defeated former Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue, taking 57 percent of the vote.

In District 5, which covers the Monterey Peninsula all the way south to Big Sur, incumbent Dave Potter lost to the former President and CEO of the United Way, Mary Adams. Adams took 56 percent of the vote.

The outcome of the District 1 race is too close to call. Right now, Assemblymember Luis Alejo has 48 percent of the vote. He says he is only 100 votes away from securing the majority. Incumbent Fernando Armenta has 26 percent. Right behind him is Salinas City Councilman Tony Barrera with 25 percent. Just 27 votes separate Armenta and Barrera.

The next round of results are expected on Monday. That’s when we could finally get some answers.

“A few votes will determine if this is a runoff, and a few votes will determine who will run if this is a runoff for that second place spot,” Alejo said.

If there is a runoff election between Alejo and Armenta, the incumbent said he plans to make some changes to his campaign.

“I’m going to be looking at all aspects of it,” Armenta said. “What were the weaknesses and strengths on his side — Tony Barrera’s side — and also on my campaign.”

According to the Secretary of State’s Office, 174,674 people were registered to vote in Monterey County. Of that, 46,374 ballots have already been counted. The District 1 race has 4,101 ballots counted so far.

Political analyst David Anderson explains why the turnout may have been low.

“A lot of people didn’t know that this was a final vote they thought this was a Top Two (Open Primary) and would have another chance to vote later on,” Anderson said.

ORIGINAL POST:

Two of three Monterey County Board of Supervisor races have been decided after Tuesday’s primary election. District 5 incumbent Dave Potter lost to Mary Adams, while incumbent Jane Parker is retaining her District 4 seat.

The lone undecided race is for the District 1 position, which encompasses the county seat of Salinas. Challenger Luis Alejo has 48 percent of the vote, but not enough to claim the seat. The race for second place is close, with incumbent Fernando Armenta leading current Salinas Councilman Tony Barrera by fewer than 30 votes.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more on the story at 5 & 6.