Extra

Lori Droste took a slim 12 vote lead in the District 8 City Council race after an additional 3762 vote-by-mail votes and about 6400 provisional votes were counted countywide.

The Registrar had previously estimated that there were 24,000 provisional ballots. The remaining provisional ballots will determine the outcome of this race and a recount can be expected if the margin remains as small as it has been since the counting began.

In Round 4 of ranked choice voting, Droste now leads Beier 1995 to 1983 or 50.15% to 49.85%. 

District 8 includes the area east of Telegraph and south of Dwight, except for one Willard neighborhood precinct were District 7 incumbent council member Kriss Worthington lives. It also includes 3 precincts north of Dwight that include Panoramic Hill and one precinct west of Telegraph south of Russell. 

Since the 2010 election, a majority of Berkeley voters have cast vote-by-mail ballots, though a substantial number of these ballots are are not mailed but dropped off at the polls. In 2012, 51.7% voted absentee. This year it looks like absentee ballots could total over 60% of ballots cast in Berkeley. 

Students have historically been the group least likely to vote absentee, but this year even a majority of students may have voted absentee. 

Late absentees, those received on election day, were more numerous this year than early absentees. Almost 112,000 absentees have been counted since election day, more than had been predicted by the Registrar of Voters. 

As of 5:05 p.m. today (numbers in parentheses are votes as of 4:55 yesterday) 

City Council District 7 

Kriss Worthington 669 (656) +13 

Sean Barry 533 (527) + 6 

City Council District 8 First Choice votes 

Lori Droste 1263 (1210) +53 

George Beier 1154 (1118) +36 

Mike Alvarez Cohen 1129 (1088) +41 

Jacqueline McCormick 790 (746) +44 

BUSD School Directors 

Ty Alper 19,356 (18,848) +508 

Josh Daniels 18349 (17,824) +525 

Karen Hemphill 15912 (15,486) +426 

Julie Sinai 15427 (15,026) +401 

Norma Harrison 3473 (3366) +107 

To see key ranked choice voting results, click here.