Extra

While the Alameda County Registrar of Voters released unofficial ranked choice voting results from District 8 in the early hours of this morning showing George Beier the unofficial winner in Round 4 with 1267 votes to 1242 for Lori Droste, the outcome of the District 8 election is still very much in doubt. 

So far only 2746 votes for the four candidates, Beier, Alvarez Cohen, McCormick and Droste, have been counted. The County Registrar of Voters has not announced how many absentee ballots remain to be counted. It could take several days for the remaining votes to be counted. 

Total votes cast for District 8 candidates in previous gubernatorial elections are as follows: 

2010: 4569 

2006: 4327 

2002: 4755 

Even recognizing that total turnout was quite probably down this year, it still seems unlikely that it's down 40%. There could easily be another thousand or more ballots to count in District 8. Absentee voting is on the rise in Berkeley and many people drop their ballots at the polls. 

In addition, as a result of redistricting to create a student super-majority district, District 8 has fewer low-turnout student precincts and more high-turnout homeowner precincts than it did in 2010. 

The four candidates are only separated be 256 votes. The results, as of 12:44 a.m. today are: 

Lori Droste: 775 

Mike Alvarez Cohen: 741 

George Beier: 711 

Jacquelyn McCormick: 519