Politics & Government
Pajaro Valley Elections Uncertain with Uncounted Ballots
Over 30,000 ballots are left to be counted, leaving local races like the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees too close to call. The Watsonville City Council is set, though.
With an estimation of , some Pajaro Valley races are too close and too early to call.
All precincts reported their results by late Tuesday night, but some mail-in ballots, provisional ballots, damaged ballots, military ballots and overseas ballots are still uncounted.
It's possible that those ballots will not have a significant effect on the races unique to Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, but with such tight races, even several hundred votes coming from South County could make a big difference.
Find out what's happening in Watsonvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
With the current vote count, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustee races are close. If the current vote stands, which is uncertain, newcomer Maria Orozco will best former Watsonville Mayor Antonio Rivas for the Area 6 position. She had nearly 55 percent of the vote while Rivas had 44 percent.
In the Area 3 race, incumbent Karen Osmundon held a 188-vote lead over challenger Elsa Nunez. However that race spans two counties and the majority of the voters are in Monterey County, which is not impacted by the 30,000 uncounted Santa Cruz County votes.
Find out what's happening in Watsonvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Both Orozco and Osmundson came to the election night party at the Watsonville Democrat headquarters, dubbed the Watsonville Center For Change. Orozco was confident in her campaign while Osmudson, who saw a fellow school board member rally for her opponent, said Obama's win was her priority on election night
Measure L, which would increase property tax in the Pajaro Valley by about $38 per $100,000 of assessed value, is passing with 66.8 percent of the vote. The measure needs 55 percent to go into affect. It would raise $150 million to repair aging school facilities.
The one race that is decided is the Watsonville City Council, where four candidates ran unopposed for four seats. Incumbents Lowell Hurst and Felipe Hernandez will be joined by newcomers Karina Cervantez and Trina Coffman-Gomez on the council.
Hurst, Cevrantez and Hernandez were at the Democrats' party, along with current councilmen Oscar Rios and Daniel Dodge.
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