Yorba Linda Mayor Craig Young and Councilman Tom Lindsey appeared to easily fight off a recall attempt Tuesday according to unofficial election returns.

With all 22 precincts reporting, as well as nearly 20 percent of the city’s 40,532 registered voters casting absentee ballots, roughly 58 percent rejected the recall of Young and Lindsey.

Still to be counted are absentee ballots turned in at the polls as well as any that arrived at the Registrar of Voters’ office before the 8 p.m. close of voting. Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said Tuesday he hoped to have all outstanding ballots counted by Wednesday evening.

Kelley labeled the recall “definitely a vote-by-mail election.” While about 28 percent of the city’s registered voters cast ballots in the special election, only 8.08 percent of them—3,273—went to the polls. The remaining 8,101 voters mailed in their ballots, a trend that has been strongly growing statewide in recent years.

The recall drive was launched by Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment or YLRRR, a residents’ group created in 2005 to slow development of the city’s Town Center.

Please contact Tracy Wood directly at twood@voiceofoc.org and follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/tracyVOC.

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