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New: Election 2014 Update:
Beier's District 8 Margin Now Only 2 Votes in Low Turnout Berkeley Election

Rob Wrenn

Sunday November 09, 2014 - 12:35:00 AM

George Beier has only a two vote lead over Lori Droste in the District 8 City Council race after the Registrar counted an additional 47,045 vote-by-mail ballots. Droste continues to lead with first choice votes, but would lose to Beier in the fourth round of ranked choice voting by just two votes, 1910 to 1908, or 50.03 % to 49.97%. Provisionals may determine the outcome and a recount is possible if this razor thin margin is the final margin when all votes are counted.

The Registrar had initially estimated that 100,000 absentee ballots remained to be counted countywide after election night. With 108,204 ballots counted so far, that would suggest that few if any absentee ballots remain to be counted. An estimated 24,000 provisional ballots countywide must also be processed.

In the School Board race, Karen Hemphill holds a comfortable 460 vote lead over Julie Sinai for third place. In the post-election count of absentees to date, Sinai has failed to narrow Hemphill's election day margin. I'm calling this election for third place for Hemphill.

In the District 7 Council race, Kriss Worthington's lead over Sean Barry grew a bit from 114 votes to 129 votes. Kriss now leads 55.4% to 44.6% in the very low turnout District 7 race.

We won't know what the official turnout was in Berkeley this year until the Registrar releases the official Statement of Vote, which is due by December 2, but indications are that it could be one of the lowest turnouts of the last 35 years. Countywide turnout this year is well below that of previous election years. Student turnout in Berkeley appears to be even lower than usual.

As of 4:55 today (numbers in parentheses are votes as of 4:52 yesterday)