Betty Martinez-Franco was in the lead in the special election to fill a vacancy on the Irvine City Council, according to initial results posted by the OC Registrar of Voters Tuesday night.
Martinez-Franco held 47% of the vote as of 9:30 p.m.
Former Councilman Anthony Kuo was in second place with 42.5% of the vote, trailing behind by over 300 votes. Council hopeful Dana Corneleus trailed far behind both candidates with 698 votes tallied for her – a little over 10% of the ballots.
County election officials are expected to update the ballot counts at 5 p.m. Wednesday evening.
The election will end a monthslong vacancy created after Mayor Larry Agran left his city council seat behind to win the top spot on the dais in the 2024 election, triggering a special election.
This was the first time residents in neighborhoods like Woodbridge, Rancho San Joaquin and University Park voted for their own representative under the city’s switch to district elections, which also expanded the city council from five to seven members.
Despite the race only lasting around three months, it wasn’t short on controversy.
Former City Councilwoman Tammy Kim was one of the top contenders for the seat, but dropped out of the race after she was accused of not actually living in the neighborhood she claimed to.
[Read: Former Irvine Councilwoman Abandons Campaign Amid Residency Questions]
After Kim dropped out of the race, the local Democratic Party instead endorsed Martinez-Franco for the seat.
Special interests also invested over $167,000 on their preferred candidates in the race, with nearly 85% of that cash going to support Kuo’s campaign through fliers and other advertising according to campaign disclosures.
[Read: Irvine City Council Race Sees a 10-to-1 Lead in Campaign Spending]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.