Mission Viejo is guaranteed to get at least three new council members as incumbents are termed out and all five seats are listed on the ballot.
Here’s where the votes stood after Tuesday’s 10 p.m. initial ballot counts, according to results from the OC Registrar of Voters.
In District 1, incumbent Bob Ruesch was leading with 66.4% of the 4,435 votes tallied so far, while Kristen Wilcox was trailing with 33.6% of the vote.
In District 2, two newcomers are vying for the same seat. Saga Conroy was leading with 53.1% of the 5,315 votes tallied so far, while Peter Molinari was trailing with 46.9% of the vote.
In District 3, Bryan Zahn was leading with 53.4% of the 3,797 votes tallied so far, while incumbent Cynthia Vasquez was trailing with 46.6% of the vote.
In District 4, two newcomers are also vying for the same seat. James Morrison was leading with 50.2% of the 3,873 votes tallied so far, while Laura Lacko was trailing with 49.8% of the vote.
District 5 has only one candidate running unopposed: Steven Thornton, a defense acquisition contractor who also serves on the city’s community services commission.
All five seats are listed on the ballot this year after the city spent years grappling with how to host elections — after putting up a fight against creating election districts.
Mission Viejo leaders attempted to argue that district-based elections weren’t going to help minority residents elect their preferred candidate because they claimed that different community groups were spread out across the city — not congregated in a certain region.
Instead, the city tried to pursue a different type of voting system known as cumulative voting. That system, which isn’t used by any general law cities in the state, allows residents to distribute multiple votes among their top-choice candidates.
But that idea was ultimately rejected by then Secretary of State Alex Padilla since the voting system isn’t approved by the state legislature. The council also came under fire for illegally extending terms for multiple officeholders.
