Public Comment

Vote counts released today (Monday) by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters  

City Council District 1  

Kesarwani - 1658 48.9% 

Mikiten - 1462 43.1% 

Freeman - 271 8.0% 

Incumbent Council member Rashi Kesarwani’s margin over Elisa Mikiten grew from 165 votes to 196 votes as the County Registrar of Voters reported more results. Kesarwani now has 48.9% of the first choice votes to 43.1% for Mikiten. In the ranked choice voting report for votes counted so far, more of third-place candidate Michai Freeman’s votes go to Mikiten than to Kesarwani, but enough go to Kesarwani or to no one to give the incumbent a 51.7% to 48.3% lead after Freeman’s second choice votes are assigned. Mikiten will have to do substantially better when the remaining ballots are counted to overtake Kesarwani.  

Measure L - the $650 million bond - requires two thirds vote  

YES - 12,875 56.8% 

NO - 9,793 43.2% 

Measure L now has a slightly higher percentage of YES votes, the percentage rising from 56.2% to 56.8%, but this measure has no chance of getting the two-thirds required for passage. Despite record spending by supporters, this bond may end up having the lowest percentage of support for a City of Berkeley bond since 2002. Even bonds that have failed in recent years, such as bonds for the proposed warm pool, managed to get 60% support.  

Measure M - Vacancy Tax- requires majority vote  

Yes - 13,941 62.2% 

No - 8,487 37.7%  

Has definitely passed.  

How Many Ballots remain to be Counted?  

Data posted on the Registrar’ Web site today report that 43,918 Vote by Mail ballots have been received, for a turnout of 61.5%. That’s up from the 36,628 Vote by Mail ballots reported to have been returned in Berkeley as of last Thursday. With today’s count, a majority of the ballots, perhaps 56-57%, have now been counted. The Registrar plans to do the 1% Manual Tally for the November election next Monday, with batches for the manual tally selected on Friday. This suggests that they plan to have all the ballots counted by the end of this week.  

School Board - 3 seats  

Ka’dijah Brown - 15,121 

Jennifer Shanoski - 12,001 

Mike Chang - 11,767 

Reichi Lee - 11,231 

Tatiana Guerreiro Ramos - 3,143 

Norma Harrison - 645  

The margin between third place candidate Mike Chang and fourth place candidate Reichi Lee has increased from 255 votes to 536 votes.  

Rent Board - 5 seats  

Soli Alpert - 11,859 

Nathan Mizell - 10,387 

Stefan Elgstrand - 9,526 

Vanessa Danielle Marrero - 9,270 

Carole Marasovic - 8,683 

Ida Martinac - 8,431 

Negeene Mosaed - 7,947 

Wendy Saenz Hood - 7,675  

Carole Marasovic, running as an independent dropped from 4th to 5th place, with Vanessa Marrero taking 4th place. Ida Martinac, in 6th place, is now only 252 votes behind Marasovic. Martinac and Marrero are members of the Right to Housing Slate, selected at the Tenant Convention held this year. For the first time, since there have been elections for Rent Board, it’s possible that one or two candidates who are not members of any slate will be elected to the Rent Board. Stefan Elgstrand, in third place, is very likely to finish in the top five.  

City Council District 7 - Students Don’t Vote in Berkeley updated  

The County Registrar reports that only 581 vote by mail ballots were returned in District 7, the student super majority district. That’s only 1.3% of the total number of Vote by Mail ballots reported so far.  

Rigel Robinson, running unopposed for District 7 Council except for a write-in candidate, had 56 votes when the election night count was completed. With today’s update, he’s up to a pitiful 119 votes. Mari Mendonca, who is losing badly in District 8, with only 23.7% of the vote, has received 660 votes so far, more than five times Robinson’s unopposed first place tally. Does it really make sense to have a district when someone can be elected with only a few hundred votes?  

City Council District 8 - Easy Win for Mark Humbert  

Mark Humbert - 1853 66.5% 

Mari Mendonca - 660 23.7% 

Peter Bruce Dumont - 114 4.09% 

Mary-Lee Smith - 93 3.3% 

Jay Wu - 68 2.4%  

City Council District 4 - Kate Harrison Ran Unopposed  

Kate Harrison - 1,471  

City Auditor - Jenny Wong Ran Unopposed  

Jenny Wong - 19,113  

Alameda County District Attorney  

Terry Wiley 115,052. 50.4% 

Pamela Price 113,138 49.6%  

Wiley’s lead has shrunk substantially from 5526 votes to 1914 votes. Price has a real chance of overtaking Wiley. Difficult to say what her chances are without knowing what parts of the county have the highest number of uncounted votes. Berkeley’s uncounted ballots will undoubtedly favor Price.