Page One

Wicks won by 250 votes; Prop 10 won big

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has certified the results of the November Election and released the Statement of Vote with a breakdown by precinct and city.

Berkeley votes supported affordable housing funding in November, voting overwhelmingly for Proposition 1 which authorizes $4 billion in bonds for affordable housing, and for the local affordable housing bond measure, Measure O. State and local bond funds, along with County affordable housing bond funds approved in 2016 and Measure U-1 revenues, will be able to help fund a substantial amount of below market affordable housing in Berkeley. 

Berkeley also affirmed strong support for rent control by supporting Proposition 10. Alameda County and San Francisco County were the only counties where a majority of voters supported Proposition 10 to repeal the Costa Hawkins bill’s ban on extending the power of local governments to enact additional rent control measures. The percentage voting Yes in Berkeley, 64.7%, was the highest in the state. As previously reported in the Planet, the Tenant Convention slate of Rent Board candidates swept all five seats, their victory aided by the absence of a full slate of candidates running against them. 

Proposition 10 and Statewide Races

Berkeley 64.7% 

Inglewood 61.6% 

Los Angeles 57.6% 

Santa Monica 57.4% 

Davis 56.2% 

Richmond 54.5% 

Burbank 53.9% 

Glendale 53.6% 

Santa Cruz 53.0% 

San Francisco 52.9% 

Alameda Co. 51.8% 

Majorities in some smaller cities in Los Angeles County also supported Prop 10, which came close to passing in L.A. County, with 49.5%. 

Berkeley voters overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in all races for statewide offices. In the race for the U.S. Senate, where two Democrats made the November runoff, incumbent Diane Feinstein was supported over Kevin DeLeon, with DeLeon winning in some flatland precincts. Outgoing AD-15 Assembly member Tony Thurmond was elected statewide over Marshall Tuck for Superintendent of Public Instruction, with 51.9%. Here in Berkeley, Thurmond received 80% of the vote. In the race for Governor, Republican candidate John Cox only managed 5.3% of the vote, though that is an improvement over the 3.2% Trump received in the 2016 presidential election. 

Berkeley voters backed Proposition 3, State Water Bonds, by 52% to 48% margin. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups opposed Prop 3 which lost narrowly statewide, 50.7% to 49.3%. Berkeley voters strongly rejected Republican-backed measures to reduce taxes, rejecting both Prop 5 and Prop 6, which both failed statewide. A majority of Berkeley voters also voted for Prop 8 to regulate kidney dialysis treatment charges; that measure failed statewide by 60%-40%. 

How Berkeley Voted, Selected State and Local Races

Berkeley voters easily passed Measures O & P to fund affordable housing and homeless services. Measure O fell short of the two-thirds required for a bond measure in only a few of the City’s most affluent precincts, including in one precinct above Claremont Ave. in District 8 and in a few precincts in the Northeast Berkeley hills in District 6. There was overwhelming support for the bond measure throughout the flatlands. 

Berkeley City Council 

In Berkeley’s City Council races, the two incumbents seeking re-election, Kate Harrison, in District 4, and Lori Droste, in District 8, won re-election by comfortable margins, finishing first in every precinct in their respective districts by solid margins. 

In District 1, the closest race for Council this year, for the seat held since 1992 by Linda Maio, Rashi Kesarwani, who fell short of 50% of first choice votes, defeated Igor Tregub by picking up more support than Tregub from supporters of third place candidate Margo Scheuler. Igor came in ahead of Kesarwani in four of the District’s 14 precincts and was one vote short of Kesarwani in one other West Berkeley precinct. 

In District 7, the student super-majority district, represented since 1996 by Kriss Worthington, Rigel Robinson, a recent UC grad, easily defeated Ces Rosales, 56.5% to 34.5%. Rosales won two of three South of Dwight precincts, the ones that have substantial homeowner populations, while Robinson won all the near campus student precincts north of Dwight Way. Turnout was poor in District 7. Only 3,259 people cast ballots, of only 6,014 registered to vote, resulting in a turnout of 54.2%. By contrast, in District 1, with a hotly contested Council race, 11,070 were registered to vote and 8,609 ballots were cast, a turnout of 77.8%, above the citywide average of 73.7%. 

As previously reported in the Planet, Jenny Wong was elected Auditor with 92% of the vote; and Ty Alper, Ka’dijah Brown and Julie Sinai ran far ahead of three other candidates in the School Board race. 

Assembly District 15: Wicks edges Beckles in Berkeley 

In the hotly contested race for Assembly District 15, Buffy Wicks, who broke all previous records for spending in an AD-15 race, and who benefited by independent expenditures made by special interest groups that paid for hit piece mailers, edged Richmond City Councilmember Jovanka Beckles by 250 votes. Voting following the usual pattern in Berkeley. Beckles defeated Wicks in the five flatlands covering Downtown, Central, South and West Berkeley, and in student areas, which have historically favored more progressive candidates, while losing in the City’s most affluent districts, 5, 6, and 8, which include the Berkeley Hills, which have traditionally voted for more moderate candidates. Beckles won majorities only in her home town of Richmond, in San Pablo, and in some of the unincorporated areas of the Contra Costa portion of the District. Beckles lost badly in more affluent areas like Kensington and Piedmont. Turnout in Richmond was poor compared to turnout in Berkeley and the part of Oakland in AD-15. 

Richmond, Rollingwood, East Richmond Heights. El Sobrante and 

Kensington, also unincorporated places, are listed separately and 

not included in total for “Unincorported CC”. 

Vote for Beckles and Wicks  

by Berkeley City Council Districts 

Turnout in Berkeley was at record levels for a non-presidential year. More than 18,000 more votes were cast this year than in 2014. This year’s count fell a little more than 7000 votes short of the number of votes cast in the 2016 presidential election. Vote by mail ballots accounted for 71.3% of ballots cast in Berkeley this year as voting at the polls continues to decline. 58.1% had voted by mail in 2014 and 64.8% in 2016. 

Official Results from Statement of Vote 

Berkeley City Council -November 6 Election 

These results are slightly different from the results published on the Planet site on November 19, which were based on the final update when counting finished.