Orange County voters on election night set a record for volume, but not quite for proportion of registered voters casting ballots, Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley said Wednesday.
Republicans set a record for in-person voting on Election Day, at least as far back as 1980, Kelley said.
The registrar had a smaller than usual tabulation on Wednesday as staff had to sort through and prepare ballots dropped off at vote centers on Election Day, Kelley said. It is a time-consuming process that can take up to 36 hours because employees must sort through them, flatten them out to run them through the counting machine as well as check the signatures and eligibility of voters, Kelley said.
“It’s not like getting a piece of mail on the coffee table and slicing it open,” Kelley said.
Kelley said at least 85% and up to 90% of the ballots cast were vote-by-mail ones, Kelley said.
The county tabulated about 15,000 votes Wednesday, Kelley said. The county has about 200,000 ballots left to count, Kelley said.
Turnout is expected to “creep up to 77%,” Kelley said.
Part of what was driving the turnout was, “We’ve never had this many registered voters before,” Kelley said.
Santa Ana City Councilman Vicente Sarmiento will become the city’s first new mayor since 1994.
Sarmiento emerged atop a six-candidate field in Tuesday’s election and will replace termed-out Mayor Miguel Pulido, who has been on the City Council since 1986 and mayor since 1994.
Among those running to replace him were former council members Claudia Alvarez and Cecilia Iglesias, and current members Sarmiento and Jose Solorio.
Sarmiento has been on the council since 2007.
In another race of note, Republican Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, the vice chairman of the board, appeared to have emerged victorious in his bid for another term, outlasting Democratic Westminster City Councilman Sergio Contreras in the nonpartisan race. It was unclear how many ballots remain to be counted, but Do had roughly 53% of the vote on Wednesday.
In the 29th Senate District, former Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat, was nearing a return to Sacramento. He was holding a narrow lead Wednesday over Sen. Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar. Chang replaced Newman in the Senate when Newman was recalled in 2018, after he cast a decisive vote for a gas tax increase.
Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, was trailing UC Irvine law professor Dave Min, 51.82% to 48.18%, in 37th Senate District.
Moorlach said Min jumped out to a large lead when the polls closed, but it shrank throughout the night.
“If that holds then we might have a surprise tonight,” Moorlach said Wednesday. “Right now I haven’t lost, but I haven’t won, so I’m in limbo.”