News
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Californians on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50 to redraw congressional boundaries.
Based on the preliminary vote count, Lake County delivered only a narrow win in favor of the measure on election day.
However, the vote count is expected to change during the official canvass, which will continue until the election is certified on Dec. 12, so how Lake County ultimately decided on the matter won’t be certain for weeks.
The passing of Proposition 50 means California will temporarily adopt new congressional district maps drawn by the Legislature, giving Democrats a better chance of winning up to five additional House seats from Republicans in the next midterm election.
For many, putting the matter on the ballot is a response to Republican gerrymandering, where President Trump urged GOP-led states to redraw their districts.
“We put Prop 50 on the ballot and voters passed it today in direct response to Texas Republicans’ choice to draw and pass a new, rigged Congressional map without input from voters,” Congressman Mike Thompson said in a statement after its passage. “That’s anti-democratic, plain and simple.”
Statewide, the preliminary count as of 2 a.m. Wednesday showed that voters approved the proposition by nearly a 2-to-1 margin: 63.8% in favor and 36.2% opposed.
Whereas in Lake County, the results were much tighter, with a difference of just 236 votes. Of all the 10,358 votes counted by Tuesday night, 51.14%, or 5,297, were in favor and 48.86% or 5,061, opposed.
These numbers include 8,732 vote-by-mail ballots received and counted by Nov. 4, and 1,630 ballots turned in to the 20 polling places around the county on the election day.
They do not include ballots turned in at the six drop boxes around the county, because those ballots require signature verification before counting.
The rest of the vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 4 and received by Nov. 12 will also be counted at a later date upon receiving.
Those who showed up at polling stations on Tuesday seem to display a differing preference: out of the 1,630 votes cast, 1,010, or 61.96% voted against the proposition — against both the local and state trends.
Regardless of the final local results, however, congressional redistricting will take place.
For Lake County, it means Thompson will cease to serve most of the county except for a portion in the south.
“I love my current district, and I will continue to serve the people in our community with dedication and to work with the candidate elected to represent the First District,” Thompson said in a statement. “I am also excited and energized to work with the local leaders in our newly-formed Fourth District to serve our community and address the issues important to them.”
Final hours of election night
As the statewide special election unfolded amid the debate over gerrymandering, the Lake County Registrar of Voters office on Forbes Street in Lakeport carried on with a sense of order, calmness as well as some warmth.
While the office waited for vehicles delivering ballots from across the county, an unexpected visitor from the recent Halloween weekend — a black spider roughly an inch long — was spotted roaming the lobby. A young election worker took it out, declining the suggestion to kill it.
Shortly after 9 p.m., cars began arriving intermittently, with one from Upper Lake arriving first. As soon as ballots came in and were sorted, counting started at the scanning machine, with two people operating at each station.
The office grew busier and quieter as waves of ballots were delivered and poll workers departed.
For the special election, the registrar’s office deployed five permanent staff, five to six extra help personnel, and two IT staff, with supervisors Bruno Sabatier and Brad Rasmussen volunteering at the site, Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez told Lake County News.
Valadez said throughout the day that seven people stayed on the phone answering voters’ questions, from lost ballots to changed addresses, just as in past elections. At least one person was always at the counter.
Ballots were processed orderly and quickly once unloaded into the office.
“We have a great team here,” said Valadez. “We are really organized; we have to be organized.”
“Shoutout to our poll workers too because they rock,” she added.
“We were doing great. We always have a good turnout but we don’t have lines. Our counting was perfect and there’s no mistake,” Precinct 381 Inspector India Akua Mendonca, who has worked at polling stations for over 10 years, told Lake County News as she signed off at the office after delivering the ballots. “We have a great team.”
The expected storm on the night didn’t materialize, but hints were dropped that it might just come soon.
“It starts sprinkling,” Valadez announced, panning in from the parking lot as staff continued waiting for the ballots. The clock had just turned 10:30 p.m.
The night ended after the final ballot was counted at 11:25 p.m.; counting to be continued.
Email Lingzi Chen at
- Details
- Written by: Lingzi Chen
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday appointed a deputy county counsel to act as interim public defender.
Following a closed session discussion that began in the morning and was continued later in the late afternoon, the board appointed Senior Deputy County Counsel Carlos Torrez to fill the job temporarily.
The county reported that Torrez accepted the appointment, which took effect immediately on Tuesday, the day that outgoing Chief Public Defender Raymond Buenaventura’s tenure officially came to an end.
Buenaventura, who joined the county two years ago, was hired Oct. 14 as chief public defender by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.
He later submitted his resignation to the county of Lake, with the supervisors accepting it in closed session last week.
Torrez received his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2009.
He was involved with the county’s conversion from an indigent defense contract to the new statutory Public Defender’s Office, which the county said “plays a vital role in ensuring effective client representation and the responsible stewardship of public resources.”
The county’s take on the office’s effectiveness is despite ongoing concerns from county defense attorneys and criticism from judges about the performance of the public defender’s attorneys in court since the office was restarted in 2023. A previous iteration of the Public Defender’s Office was abandoned 40 years ago due to the high cost of dealing with conflicts of interest among its attorneys.
The county’s announcement on his interim appointment said Torrez brings 10 years of dedicated public service experience, including extensive work in complex litigation, management, leadership and policy development.
“During his tenure with the Office of the County Counsel, he has demonstrated unwavering professionalism, sound legal judgment, and a deep commitment to access to justice for all Lake County residents,” the county’s Monday evening announcement said.
As interim public defender, the county said Torrez will lead a team of “dedicated attorneys and professional staff,” overseeing the office’s criminal defense work including juvenile and probate/conservatorship divisions.
The county congratulated Torrez on what it called a “well deserved appointment.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
How to resolve AdBlock issue?