Election update: Modesto City Schools bond measure still has just enough votes to pass
Modesto City Schools’ $198 million bond measure in Tuesday’s election continues to have just enough votes to pass, according to updated results released Thursday evening by the Stanislaus County election office.
Measure L had 22,150 votes, or 55.5%, in support, vs. 17,763 votes, or 45.5%, against it. The bond measure needs 55% voter approval to pass.
The measure had 55.05% support in results released late Tuesday night out of the 32,986 votes the election office had counted then. The update added 7,017 votes, and turnout for the bond measure stood at 28.4.%
Modesto City Schools Superintendent Sara Noguchi said by text that Measure L had won 57.6% of the ballots that had been counted in Thursdays’ update. She called that “great news.”
“We are extremely proud of the hard work of our local community partners and MTA (Modesto Teachers Association) who advocated vigorously for the passing of Measure L,” Noguchi continued in her text. “We are hopeful that the results will continue to come in in our favor so we can continue our great work with our bond program.”
The city of Modesto’s 1% sales tax increase, which is called Measure H, continued to hold a commanding lead.
The updated results showed 20,171 votes in support, or 62.9%, vs. 11,880 votes, or 37.1%, against it. The tax increase requires a simple majority to pass. Measure H had 63% approval as of Tuesday’s results. Turnout for the measure now stands at 29.3%.
The election office reported it has now counted 79,777 ballots in races held countywide and had more than 39,000 vote-by-mail ballots that remained to be processed and counted. That includes checking signatures. The office also had more than 1,300 other ballots it needed to process.
Stanislaus County had 282,393 registered voters as of Tuesday’s election, and voter turnout countywide is now 28.3% based on Thursday evening’s update.
Adding the ballots the election office has counted so far with the remaining uncounted ballots would put turnout at about 42% countywide. But the office will continue to process and count ballots it receives in the mail as late as Nov. 15 as long as they have a postmark of Nov. 8 or earlier.
The election office will release updates Tuesdays and Thursdays and has 30 days after the election — or Dec. 8 — to complete its count. The office was closed Friday for Veterans Day.
Modesto City Schools has one other close race — school board member Charlene West vs. challenger Jolene Daly to represent parts of east Modesto, including Empire and the airport neighborhood.
West was leading with 50.8% of the vote to Daly’s 49.2% as of Tuesday’s results. West had a lead then of 74 votes out of the 4,518 that had been counted. Thursday’s update slightly increased West’s lead. She has 2,793 votes, or 51.1%, vs. 2,668 votes, or 48.9%, for Daly.
This story was originally published November 10, 2022 at 9:09 PM.
