East Palo Alto Vice Mayor Ruben Abrica and nonprofit leader Ofelia Bello took early leads election night in the City Council race where two seats are up for grabs.
Abrica, the only incumbent in the race going up against six challengers, came in at the top with 21.2% of votes. Bello was not far behind with about 21% of the vote.
Voters were allowed to select two of seven candidates. Councilmember Martha Barragan announced in August that she decided not to seek reelection due to health reasons.
Early results showed the rest of the candidates trying to catch up, with veteran and business leader Sam Jimenez following Abrica and Bello with 15.9% of the vote. East Palo Alto Planning Commission chair Michael Mashack had 14.3%.
The Rev. Deborah Lewis-Virges, who ran unsuccessfully in 2024, had 11.5%. Business leader Holifa Windom had 10% and legal investigator Gail Wilk Dixon had 6%.
Abrica was elected to the city’s first council after East Palo Alto was incorporated in the 1980s and then took a break before returning to the council in 2004. He has since won reelection multiple times.
Bello is an East Palo Alto native who has served on the Planning Commission and was elected in 2022 to serve on the East Palo Alto Sanitary District Board of Directors. She is the executive director of Pahali Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that aims to grow affordable housing availability.
Bello first ran for City Council in 2024, coming in fifth place in a race where the top three candidates won a seat.
The tallies include vote-by-mail ballots received in the mail or returned to vote centers and drop boxes on or before Friday, and some vote center ballots. Updates to the tallies were expected each hour on election night until all ballots cast at vote centers had been reported.
Post-Election Day results will be released before 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and additional days the following week.
