The leader in San Leandro’s District 3 City Council race, Lee Thomas, expressed confidence Wednesday that the results will hold despite an election process that has been less than smooth.
Thomas was ahead of his sole opponent, Joseph Trujillo, with 59.4% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon — a nearly 20 percentage point advantage, according to numbers published by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office.
“I’m feeling very confident in terms of what the results look like right now,” Thomas said. “All of the data and everything is trending in the right direction for me.”
He reminded voters, however, that the existing tally isn’t yet the true or final count.
That’s because the ballots that went out for the three City Council races erroneously presented the candidates as running in at-large elections, even though the city has transitioned to a district-style system.
“What folks need to realize is that number that’s out right now is not the true number,” Thomas said.
His confidence in an apparent victory lies in the large margin of votes he currently enjoys over his opponent, a margin he believes will hold up when the final, corrected numbers are in.
On Wednesday, Trujillo said Mayor Juan Gonzalez and City Manager Janelle Cameron reached out to go over the process by which the votes will be counted and a winner declared in the District 3 race, which is the only City Council race with more than one candidate on the ballot.
“My primary focus remains ensuring that every vote cast by the residents of District 3 is accurately counted and properly accounted for,” Trujillo said in an email. “I appreciate the city’s outreach and will continue to closely monitor the verification process to ensure total transparency and fairness for our voters.”
The city anticipates determining a winner after the Registrar of Voters certifies the election results, which is expected by Dec. 3, said city spokesperson Kyla Glucky.
Once that happens, the city will use the precinct-level vote totals to calculate the number of votes cast in each council district, including District 3, to determine who received a majority of votes.
“The City Council is scheduled to meet on December 7 to formally declare the election results,” Glucky said in an email. “We will publicly share the certified precinct-level results and information about the City’s determination process so residents can understand how the district winners are calculated.”
This process is expected to yield a fair, accurate result because the city previously used a “hybrid” system, where candidates stood for election in numbered districts and every voter across the city picked one candidate in each district.
The ballots that went out for Tuesday’s election look similar to those used in previous elections; therefore, voters in each district will still cast votes in their district election, as well as the other districts’ elections, as they have in the past.
Then officials can apply the precinct counts to the proper districts and discount votes from outside that district.
