Six days after the 2018 general election, with about 72 percent of all estimated ballots counted, as election officials report out the latest counts.
Monday’s update, which was released at 5 p.m., added 28,004 ballots to the tallies, with another estimated 303,000 ballots left to count.
The update showed Republican Rep. Mimi Walters’ lead over Democrat Katie Porter narrowing further, from 1 percentage point to 0.4 points, in the race for the 45th Congressional District. Walters was up by 5.4 percentage points in the initial election night results, and Porter has been gaining as more ballots are counted.
And in the contested 39th Congressional District, Republican candidate Young Kim’s lead over Democrat Gil Cisneros dropped again, from 1.4 percentage points to 1.1 points. The initial election night results had Kim leading by 10.6 percent, which narrowed to 5.2 percent at the end of election night counting, and narrowed further as more ballots were counted in the days since Election Day.
Also on Monday, the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce conceded it lost its battle to defeat a city minimum wage measure that will raise pay to $18 an hour by 2022 for resort-area businesses that receive subsidies from the city.
“After continuing to monitor the ballot counting it is now clear Measure L will narrowly pass. This is a tragic outcome for Anaheim. The special interests pushing Measure L lied to voters and tricked them into thinking this flawed measure will help many Anaheim workers. Time will show the voters the truth,” said Todd Ament, president of chamber, in an email statement.
The Anaheim minimum wage ballot issue has been a topic of high controversy. Disneyland and Disney Resort employees will not qualify for the increased minimum wage, according to an October opinion issued by City Attorney Robert Fabela. He said Disney doesn’t receive “tax rebates”, according to his Oct. 9 report.
But the attorney representing the resort union UNITE HERE Local 11 and who wrote the initiative, Richard McCracken, said the measure does apply to Disney businesses in the city because of a $510 million bond to help finance the expansion of the Anaheim Convention Center and a parking structure used by Disney customers. McCracken called the garage a “subsidy.”
Both the city and McCracken previously said there probably will be a lawsuit on whether Disney is exempt from the minimum wage measure or not.
In addition to the $1.5 million spent by Disney on City Council races and minimum wage measure opposition, local developers and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce have spent more than $400,000 against the wage initiative. The resort unions spent at least $1 million to support the minimum wage ordinance.
The minimum wage ordinance, which is sponsored by a coalition of labor unions representing hospitality and Disneyland workers, would require service industry businesses in the Anaheim Resort district employing at least 26 people and receiving tax rebates to pay workers an hourly minimum wage of $15 starting January 2019. The hourly wage would increase by one dollar every year until the hourly wage reaches $18 in 2022. After that, increases would be tied to cost of living increases.
Thousands of mail-in ballots sent to the Registrar on election day arrived in the days after the election, according to county officials. State law allowed mail-in ballots to arrive as late as 8 p.m. Friday and still be counted, as long as they were postmarked no later than Election Day.
Below is a run-down of updated vote counts in some of the county’s key races. Daily 5 p.m. updates are scheduled over the coming days.
Congressional Races
39th Congressional District
Young Kim (R): 88,665 votes, 50.56%
Gil Cisneros (D): 86,708 votes, 49.44%
Kim’s lead fell from 1.4 percentage points to 1.1 points since the prior update on Saturday. Updated figures are calculated based on vote counts from Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
45th Congressional District
Mimi Walters (R, Incumbent): 110,852 votes, 50.2%
Katie Porter (D): 109,841 votes, 49.8%
Walters 1-point lead fell to 0.4 percentage points.
48th Congressional District
Harley Rouda (D): 113,276 votes, 52.2%
Dana Rohrabacher (R, Incumbent): 103,804 votes, 47.8%
Rouda’s lead over Rohrabacher increased from 4.0 points to 4.4 points since the prior update on Saturday. 8,510 votes separate the two candidates.
49th Congressional District
Mike Levin (D): 120,635 votes, 54.9%
Diane Harkey (R): 99,126 votes, 45.1%
Levin’s lead grew from 9 points to 9.8 points since the prior update on Saturday. Updated figures are calculated based on vote counts reported from Orange and San Diego counties.
State-Level Races
65th State Assembly
Sharon Quirk-Silva (D, Incumbent): 49,674 votes, 54.4%
Alexandria “Alex” Coronado (R): 41,721 votes, 45.6%
Quirk-Silva’s lead increased from 8.2 percentage points to 8.8 points since the prior update on Saturday.
74th State Assembly
Cottie Petrie-Norris (D): 73,560 votes, 50.8%
Matthew Harper (R, Incumbent): 71,305 votes, 49.2%
Harper was ahead on election night, but Petrie-Norris pulled ahead Thursday with a 0.4 percentage-point lead, which increased by Saturday to a 1.4 point lead, and again to a 1.6 point lead with Monday’s update.
County-Level Races
Fourth District Supervisor
Tim Shaw (R): 53,837 votes, 50.5%
Doug Chaffee (D): 52,787 votes, 49.5%
Shaw’s lead narrowed slightly since Saturday’s update, from 1.2 points to 1.0 points.
District Attorney
Todd Spitzer (R): 351,878 votes, 53.2%
Tony Rackauckas (R, Incumbent): 309,606 votes, 46.8%
Spitzer’s significant lead remained steady in the latest update, staying at 6.4 points.
Sheriff-Coroner
Don Barnes (R): 380,857 votes, 56.1%
Duke Nguyen (D): 298,578 votes, 43.9%
Barnes continued to have a significant lead, which stood at 12.2 percentage points with the latest update. Duke Nguyen conceded this race on Wednesday.
City Races
This list only shows the top vote-getters. View results for all the candidates on the Registrar of Voters website.
Anaheim Mayor
Harry Sidhu: 19,509 votes, 35.2%
Ashleigh Aitken: 16,930 votes, 30.5%
Sidhu’s lead narrowed slightly in the latest update, from 5.6 percentage points to 4.7 points, though he continued to have a significant lead.
Anaheim City Council, District 2
Jordan Brandman: 3,112 votes, 40.8%
James Derek Vanderbilt: 2,372 votes, 31.1%
Brandman continues to have a significant lead of 9.7 points.
Anaheim City Council, District 3
Jose F. Moreno (Incumbent): 3,611 votes, 51.5%
Mitch Caldwell: 2,274 votes, 32.4%
Moreno’s lead grew slightly in the latest update, from 18.9 percentage points to 19.1 points.
Anaheim City Council, District 6
Trevor O’Neil: 7,899 votes, 45.9%
Patty Gaby: 5,982 votes, 34.7%
The margin between the two candidates is virtually the same since the prior update on Saturday.
Anaheim Measure L
Yes: 29,151 votes, 51.5%
No: 27,437 votes, 48.5%
The measure gained slightly in the latest update, going from a 2.8 percentage point lead to 3.0 points.
Santa Ana Mayor
Miguel Pulido (Incumbent): 18,912 votes, 52.2%
Sal Tinajero: 17,345 votes, 47.8%
Pulido’s lead narrowed slightly, from 6 percentage points to 4.4 points, though he continued to have a strong lead.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 2
David Penaloza: 9,661 votes, 27.8%
Sandra Pena Sarmiento: 6,805 votes, 19.6%
Penaloza’s wide lead narrowed slightly, from 9.0 percent to 8.2 percent, in the latest update.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 4
Roman Reyna: 18,667 votes, 54.0%
Phil Bacerra: 15,914 votes, 46.0%
Reyna’s wide lead grew from the prior update on Saturday, from 6.6 percentage points to 8.0 points.
Santa Ana City Council, Ward 6
Cecilia “Ceci” Iglesias: 13,785 votes, 39.5%
Nelida Medoza: 11,393 votes, 32.6%
Mirna Velasquez: 9,757 votes, 27.9%
Iglesias’ wide lead narrowed slightly from the prior update on Saturday, from 8.0 percentage points to 6.9 points.