Tonight, Orange County voters are picking a new majority for the county Board of Supervisors that will determine if Republicans retake the majority or Democrats hold onto it.
Initial tallies from the OC Registrar of voters released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday showed Democrats were on track to keep their majority on the board, with two incumbent Democrat supervisors leading in the second and fifth district races.
In all three elections, the top two vote getters will proceed to a runoff in November unless someone garners over 50% of the vote in the primary election and wins the seat outright.
In the county’s fourth district, which covers large chunks of north Orange County including Anaheim and Fullerton, Democrat and Buena Park Mayor Connor Traut was in the lead with 32% of the vote, followed by Republican and OC Board of Education Trustee Tim Shaw with just under 32% of the vote.
As of 8 p.m., they were only separated by 124 votes, with just over 55,000 votes counted.
The remaining two candidates, Fullerton Mayor Fred Jung and La Habra Councilwoman Rose Espinoza, each held less than 19% of the vote.
In the county’s fifth district, which covers swathes of the coast and south Orange County, Democrat Supervisor Katrina Foley was in the lead with 48%, while Republican Assemblywoman Diane Dixon was in second place at just under 46% of the vote.
Lucy Vellema, an educator who also ran for the seat, was in last place at less than 6% of the nearly 99,000 votes counted.
In the county’s second district, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento is in the lead with 65% of the vote.
If his lead holds at over 50%, he won’t have to go to a runoff election in November.
None of Sarmiento’s opponents held more than 15% of the vote apiece, with a total of over 38,000 votes counted.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
