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A large batch of Berkeley votes was counted today. Less than 10%, probably about 8%, of Berkeley ballots remain to be counted and should be counted by the end of the day tomorrow.  

The outcome of local races is now clear:  

Ballot Measures  

Measure L, the $650 million bond, has not passed; After today’s count, YES is at 58.0%, up a bit from yesterday. It need two-thirds to pass 

Measure M, the Vacancy Tax, which only requires majority support, passed easily; currently at 64.0% YES  

Berkeley City Council  

Rashi Kesarwani has won in District 1; with every new batch of votes, her margin has widened and she is now at 50.0% to 41.53%, an insurmountable lead with the small percentage of votes remaining to be counted.  

Kate Harrison ran without opposition in District 4 and now has 2547 votes.  

Rigel Robinson also had no opponent (other than a write-in candidate who failed to file as a write-in candidate). He has so far a truly pathetic 324 votes from the voters in District 7, the student super-majority district.  

Mark Humbert has been elected in District 8. He has 66.0% to 24.4% for Mari Mendonca.  

School Board and Rent Board  

The three candidates endorsed by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, Ka’dijah Brown, Jennifer Shanoski and Mike Chang, have won. Reichi Lee, in fourth place, is 968 votes behind Chang, too large a margin to overcome with the ballots that remain.  

Four members of the Right to Housing Slate have been elected to the Rent Board: Soli Alpert, Nathan Mizell, Vanessa Danielle Marrero and Ida Martinac. They will be joined by independent candidate Stefan Elgstrand, longtime aide to Mayor Jesse Arreguin. Carole Marasovic, in sixth place, is 600 votes behind Ida Martinac in fifth place; the remaining ballots are very unlikely to change this outcome. The Right to Housing slate has gained in the counting this week. It seems likely that tenant voters are somewhat more likely to mail or drop off their ballots closer to the election than homeowner voters.  

Auditor  

Jenny Wong, running unopposed, has been re-elected with 31,151 votes far, the highest for any citywide candidate.  

Alameda County District Attorney  

Pamela Price leads Terry Wiley 52% to 48%. 

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