Modesto council race tightens again as county nears final vote count from Nov. 3
Close-to-final results released Friday showed Chris Ricci still leading for a seat on the Modesto City Council, though by a slimmer margin than before.
Milton Richards still led Bryan Rogers for the Turlock-area seat on the Yosemite Community College District board. Waterford’s school bond measure continued to fall just short.
The Stanislaus County Election Office issued its fifth update since the Nov. 3 vote. A total of 215,676 ballots have now been counted, up 1,374 from Tuesday’s tally.
Roughly 125 to 625 ballots remain, based on an earlier estimate from the office. These are provisional and conditional ballots, where the voters’ status must be verified.
Highlights from Friday’s update:
Modesto council: Ricci led Janice Keating for the District 3 seat by 175 votes, down from 213 in Tuesday’s update. Jim Applegate was third. Rosa Escutia-Braaton and David Wright won the other two council seats.
Modesto mayor: Sue Zwahlen and Doug Ridenour have a Feb. 2 runoff because no one in the eight-candidate field came close to topping 50 percent. Rick Countryman is third and Kristi Ah You fourth.
Patterson council: Shivaugn Alves led Shawun Ruth Anderson for the District A seat by 143 votes Friday, down from 150 on Tuesday.
College board: Richards led Rogers by 124 votes Friday, down from 152 on Tuesday. The total includes the tiny part of Area 3 in northern Merced County.
School bonds: The Waterford Unified School District stood at 54.69% as of Friday, still shy of the 55% threshold for approval under state law. That’s up a hair from 54.68% on Tuesday. The Salida Union School District was at 55.93% on Friday. The Stanislaus Union and Newman-Crows Landing districts remained around 60%.
President: Joe Biden has won support from 49.28% of the county’s voters to 48.42% for Donald Trump. That lead, however, has closed from a more than 5% lead after election night.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
