Slow pace of election returns has Alameda County voters miffed
SD10: Mei’s lead shrinks again; Wahab trails by 1,181 votes; Price is optimistic about a comeback in DA’s race
ELECTION 2022
—Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis is still getting heat from voters and, especially, nervous candidates, for the slow churn of campaign results.
—As in the primary, the registrar’s office took a day-long respite from releasing new results on Wednesday. An update is expected later this afternoon. But if the primary was any indication, the newest batch of results might not be large.
—The registrar’s problems with communicating with the public, though, seems to be continuing. A press conference last week trumpeting a system of cameras to allow the public to watch the ballot-counting process was greeted with low-level praise. But the video feed offered very little except glimpses of workers standing around and with no context of what what was going on.
—The chronic problem with this registrar is that information about an election or the pace of vote-counting is never directly communicated with the public. Instead they wait to be asked about when the next update is coming. As we’ve seen over the last 48 hours, the strategy fuels frustration.
—Just tell everyone upfront and get back to counting. Meanwhile, Santa Clara County offered an update on Wednesday evening.
10TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT
—The news from Santa Clara County is good for 10th State Senate District candidate Aisha Wahab. The update is buoying hopes that Wahab is trending toward significantly tightening and perhaps on the way to erasing Lily Mei’s small lead in the two-county state senate district.
—Across Alameda and Santa Clara Counties, Mei (50.60 percent) leads Wahab (49.40 percent), with a difference of 1,181 votes separating the two candidates.
—Here’s the breakdown across the counties:
—Alameda County
MEI 20,393 (50.08 percent)
WAHAB 20,330 (49.92 percent)
—Santa Clara County
MEI 30,302 (+1,581 votes), 50.94%
WAHAB 29,184 49.06 (+2,172 votes), 49.06%
—Despite so many outstanding ballots remaining in cities and countywide, very few will likely be flipped.
—The most likely is the 10th State Senate District races mentioned above, two very close Fremont City Council races, Livermore’s mayoral race, and the Eden Health District Board of Directors race between current directors Roxann Lewis and Gordon Galvan that is separated by just 18 votes. Another, perhaps, is the Alameda County District Attorney race.
ALAMEDA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
—It remains to be seen whether Terry Wiley’s narrowing lead over Pamela Price holds or continues to shrink. There’s hints that, like Lily Mei’s lead in SD10, Wiley might be trending downward.
—On Wednesday, Price tweeted she’s optimistic that a come-from-behind victory is on the horizon.
—“I am confident the final tally will be an exclamation point in history,” Price tweeted, “It will be the chance to fix this broken criminal justice system and rebuild a real trust that will lead us to public safety.”
—Price ran away with the June primary with a 16-point win over Wiley and two other candidates. But the result wasn’t enough to avoid last Tuesday’s runoff and a fall campaign in which Wiley greatly expanded his fundraising advantage over Price.
—Independent Expenditure Committees also preyed on Price’s campaign with negative mailers and online ads over the past month.
—Program note: Like Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor, I’m on vacation starting today. I’m actually writing these words while flying over the Great Lakes. They are indeed great. It’s been a long campaign. I barely had enough gas in the tank to get through Election Night. But we made it!
—So it’s time to recharge and prepare to the change the focus from elections to city hall coverage of the East Bay. In the meantime, I’ll post some short election updates on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, and I’ll be back at full strength on Wednesday afternoon.
—I want to thank everybody who supports the East Bay Insiders Newsletter with your financial support and your daily readership, and those who listen to the East Bay Insiders Podcast. I believe government is good and I believe you must know about the times when it is not. —steve
