LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Based on preliminary numbers, a longtime tribal chair and a school board member have won seats on the Lake County Board of Supervisors, with Middletown Unified voters returning an incumbent and selecting a new member for the district's board.
Early Wednesday morning Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley issued a preliminary election ballot count which will not become final until the official canvass is completed in about a month. That process will include counting thousands of absentee ballots.
Based on that preliminary count, Jose “Moke” Simon III of Middletown was the top vote-getter in the District 1 supervisorial race, Tina Scott of Lakeport received the most votes in the District 4 race, and Sandy Tucker and Misha Grothe topped the field for two seats on the Middletown Unified School District Board.
In the race to succeed retiring District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock, Simon was in a close contest with Monica Rosenthal, who had been the top vote-getter in a four-candidate field in the June primary.
In the first absentee returns issued on Tuesday night, Rosenthal initially had a 5-percent lead over Simon, the longtime tribal chair of the Middletown Rancheria, with that lead shrinking to a little more than 1 percent when the first one-third of the precinct returns were tallied.
However, when the final precincts were counted, the race results flipped, with Simon coming in with a nearly 5-percent lead over Rosenthal.
The preliminary results showed that Simon received 1,357 votes, or 52.1 percent of the vote, compared to the 1,244 votes, or 47.8 percent, cast for Rosenthal.
In the District 4 race to succeed Anthony Farrington, who is leaving the board after four terms, the preliminary results were more decisive.
Scott, who currently serves on the Lakeport Unified School District Board, ended the night with a commanding lead over Martin Scheel, a Lakeport City Council member.
The ballot count so far shows Scott with 2,195 votes, or 60.4 percent, compared to Scheel's 1,424 votes, or 39.2 percent.
Although a large number of absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted, statistically it is unlikely that Scott can lose the race.
In other election news, in the Middletown Unified School District Board race, which had two open seats, the preliminary results showed that Tucker, the incumbent, received 1,005 votes, or 35.8 percent, followed by Grothe, with 923 votes, or 32.9 percent.
The two women hold strong leads over the rest of the field, which includes Sean Millerick, 575 votes, 20.5 percent; and Helena Welsh, 300 votes, 10.7 percent.
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