Close race for Riverbank mayor is over

Contest goes to Madueño; county turnout 22%

By Kevin Valine
kvaline@modbee.com

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The waiting is over in Riverbank. Former Councilwoman Virginia Madueño is the city's mayor.

"I'm just numb," she said Thursday evening. "I'm just talking this in. I didn't really think I would know anything until Saturday."

Her 55-vote lead over Richard O'Brien, a retired Navy commander who manages one of his fam- ily's three grocery stores, grew to 98 votes after the county election office Thursday night updated the count from Tuesday's election with the remaining mail-in votes. The update wasn't expected until at least today.

O'Brien called Madueño after the count was updated. "I congratulated Virginia on her victory," he said.

The two were the top vote-getters in a six-way race for mayor.

She received 981 votes, or 40.76 percent; O'Brien received 883 votes, or 36.68 percent.

The latest results bring the county's overall voter turnout to 22.1 percent, with 46,302 ballots cast from 209,110 eligible voters. That's slightly better than the most recent comparable off-year election, when 21.5 percent of county voters cast ballots on Nov. 6, 2007.

Two school board races changed with the new tally. Nick Bavaro has a one-vote edge over Patty Shafer as both seek to keep spots on the Empire Union School District board of trustees. They were among four candidates running for three seats.

"Patty's a good friend of mine, and she is a great school board member," Bavaro said. "Who knows how it's going to work out? If she pulls ahead she'll have my congratulations and support."

Terriann Zeek, an incumbent on the Sylvan Union School District, likely will keep her seat. Earlier results showed her trailing challenger Ann Siegel. Zeek now has 3,863 votes over Siegel's 3,637.

In the closest Modesto City Council race, Dave Geer extended his edge over Al Nava in their contest to represent Modesto's District 2. Geer has 566 votes over Nava's 430 for the south and west Modesto seat.

In Oakdale, Patricia Foard has a four-vote edge over Herman Doornenbal in their race for the Oakdale Irrigation District's Division 2 directorship.

The county election office still has to count provisional, damaged, military and overseas ballots from Tuesday's election. These ballots typically make up a small percentage of the total votes cast but can make a huge difference in a tight race.

Bee Assistant City Editor Adam Ashton contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Kevin Valine can be reached at kvaline@modbee.com or 578-2316.