10:45 p.m. Tuesday
Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat who represents Assembly District 27, had a healthy lead Tuesday evening over her Republican opponent Joanna Garcia Rose.
Still, both candidates acknowledged the race was too close to definitively call late Tuesday.
Soria had 53.9% of the vote over Rose’s 46.1% just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, with roughly 88% of precincts partially reporting, according to the Secretary of State.
Assembly District 27 includes most of Merced County and all of its cities except Gustine, plus parts of Madera and Fresno counties.
The 13th Congressional District rematch between incumbent Rep. John Duarte and challenger Democrat Adam Gray is once again a tight race. Gray leads with 50.7% of the vote over Duarte’s 49.3%, with a little more than 1,000 votes separating them as of 10:41 p.m.
The races for Merced City Council showed little substantive change as of the latest results. Incumbent Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto is on track to serve another four years in office garnering 67% of the vote. Incumbent District 5 Councilmember Sarah Boyle is also in a comfortable position, with 54% of the vote over Alex Carrillo’s 31.54%.
Darin DuPont leads in Merced City Council District 1 over Walter Smith (53.9% to 46.1%). Mike Harris (48.6%) leads in District 3 over Sair Lara Rodriguez (32.96%) and Cynthia Kelly (17.60%).
8:30 p.m. Tuesday
The first results posted to the Registrar of Voters Office just before 8:15 p.m.
Incumbent Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto is leading challenger Anthony Levi Martinez by a wide margin, with 67.5 % of the vote to Martinez’s 32.05%.
In southeast Merced’s District 1, civil attorney Darin DuPont is leading by a slim margin over planning commissioner Walter Smith 51.88% to 47.81%.
In downtown Merced’s District 3, Mike Harris is outpacing opponents Sair Lara Rodriguez and Cynthia Kelly. Harris has 47.54% of the vote over Rodriguez (33.54%) and Kelly (18.17%).
In north Merced’s District 5, incumbent Councilmember Sarah Boyle leads Alex Carrillo 54.93% to 30.85%
Measure R, the half cent-public safety tax that would benefit public safety agencies, firefighters and law enforcement in Merced County, needs support from roughly 66% of voters in order to pass. So far, 57.96% of voters are supporting the measure, with 42.04% voting no.
Before 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Sheriff Vern Warnke said he’s encouraged the ballot measure had a good lead. He’s hopeful outstanding votes will push the sales tax over the two-thirds threshold.
The first time he was elected, the first results posted after 8 p.m. showed him in third place. As votes from more rural areas of the county were counted, he gained momentum.
“I’m hoping that plays a part here,” he said. “This will play a real crucial part in whether Merced County comes back to No. 1 again for homicides.”
While he understands the frustration with new taxes, Warnke said he’s still down around 25 deputies, putting staffing levels at about 25%.
District Attorney Nicole Silveira also said she was glad to see an initial strong showing of support.
“I’m glad Measure R raised a discussion on the needs of public safety and the needs of Merced County,” she said.
In Assembly District 27, incumbent Esmeralda Soria is leading by 54.9% to 45.1% over her Repblican opponent Joanna Garcia Rose.
In the 13th Congressional District race, Adam Gray has a thin lead over incumbent Rep. Johh Duarte, 51.5% to 48.5% respectively.
7 p.m. Tuesday
Merced County’s Registrar of Voters reported more than 300 people are waiting in line to vote at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in north Merced — many of them first-time voters.
Shortly before 7 p.m., Registrar Melvin Levey said he was sending more provisional ballots to the polling location.
Brooke Offhaus was committed to casting her vote after 7 p.m. She said she arrived at the church at 4:30 p.m.
“It is exciting to see everybody here,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a passion in the air. It’s kind of nice that people are happy and excited to vote.”
A group of college students who were waiting in line around 7 p.m. said they’d been there for two hours. Timothy Little, Ethan S. and Gustavo Romero said they expected voting to take 30 minutes at most.
“We waited too long to not go in,” one said.
“We’re determined at this point,” Little said.
It wasn’t the only local polling place with long lines, Levey said, noting that polls nationwide were seeing long lines.
“It’s record turn out,” Levey said.
He and his staff are encouraging voters still hoping to cast their ballots to be in line by 8 p.m. and stay there.
“We’ll get them voted,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”
Levey asked that voters waiting in line have patience, despite how frustrating the wait may be.
By law, if eligible voters are in line at the polls by 8 p.m., they cannot be turned away. Some polling workers told The Merced FOCUS they expect to be at the polls until about midnight, due to the massive numbers of people who turned out to vote.
Eligible voters also can register and cast provisional ballots if they’re in line before the polls close. No identification is required to register.
12 p.m. Tuesday
Elections officials in Merced County said voting is proceeding smoothly countywide at polling places, which opened 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Registrar of Voters Melvin Levey told The Merced FOCUS that elections officials had counted more than 40,000 ballots prior to Monday.
That means more than a third of the registered 132,000 Merced County voters had already cast ballots by the beginning of this week.
Levey said voters have mostly been very patient and in good moods. Some short lines have been reported at polling places.
“Overall its going really well. We are seeing a lot of acitivty,” Levey said. “We are expecting it to be a very busy day throughout the county.”
The first results are expected to be reported after 8 p.m. tonight. Levey said the first update will be vote-by-mail ballots that were received by his office prior to Thursday. Signatures on those ballots have all been verified by elections officials.
The next update around 10 p.m. will be ballots received Thursday through Monday. The final update late this evening will be ballots received on Election Day.
Even after Election Day is over, however, the Registrar of Voters Office will still have much work to complete. On Wednesday, elections officials will conduct a raw count of ballots still left to process.
The Registrar of Voters must receive all mail-in ballots by Nov. 12. Mail-in ballots sent to the Registrar of Voters Office must be postmarked by 8 p.m. Election Day. On Thursday elections officials will count outstanding ballots, with another results update expected to post 5 p.m. Friday.
Levey expects an unofficial total vote count to be finalized before the end of November.
Although the voter registration deadline has passed, those who wish to vote can still fill out a conditional ballot at any Merced County voting center. Ballots can also be dropped off at voting centers or drop boxes, but they must be submitted by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Voting centers are able to handle conditional ballots and assist with language needs. The services offered at voting centers include 1) Language services 2) Ballot replacement 3) Conditional ballots and 4) Accessible voting.
For more information about voting in Merced County, visit the Registrar of Voters website or call (209) 385-7434.