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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won 93.3% of the vote in Berkeley, or 93.7% if write-ins are not included. Donald Trump and his running mate received 4.0%, up from 3.2% in the 2016 election. 

Biden. 59,965 93.7% 

Trump. 2,555 4.0% 

Hawkins (Green) 672 1.1% 

Others 782 1.2% 

Third party voting was down sharply compared to 2016. In that year, 6.5% voted for third party candidates with Green Party candidate Jill Stein coming in second with 4.6% of the vote, putting her ahead of Trump. Third party votes and write-ins totaled only 2.7% this year. 

No city in the United States with a population over 100,000 recorded a smaller percentage of votes for Donald Trump than Berkeley this year. In 2016, Detroit edged Berkeley with 3.1% for Trump in Detroit and 3.2% in Berkeley. Detroit this year does have a slightly higher percentage for Biden. 

Berkeley Turnout and Winners 

in Presidential Elections 

Among cities with populations over 100,000, Washington D.C., Cambridge, MA, and Oakland rank third, fourth and fifth in smallest percentage for Trump. Seattle is the largest city in the U.S. where Trump received less than 10%. 

I have found only one city of any size with a percentage for Trump below Berkeley’s 4%. East St. Louis, Illinois’ Election Commission report that Trump received only 281 votes, or 3.3% of the total. 

Consistent with polls showing massive support for Biden among African American voters, cities with very large percentages of African American residents like East St. Louis; Detroit; Gary Indiana; Chester, Pennsylvania; and Inglewood in Los Angeles County, gave Biden huge margins over Trump. 

Where Trump received less than 10% of the vote 

Northern Alameda County is one of the nation’s most anti-Trump areas. Not only Oakland and Berkeley, but also Albany and Emeryville gave Trump fewer than 10% of their votes. In Oakland, Albany and Emeryville, Biden topped 90%, which Hilary Clinton had failed to do in 2016. 

Cities and towns with large student populations whose major employer is a college or university also tend to be strongly anti-Trump and pro-Biden. In addition to Berkeley, Cambridge and Amherst Mass, Evanston Illinois and the city of Ithaca New York make the list of cities with under 10% support for Trump. 

If you look at cities where Trump got only 10-15%, you’ll find even more college towns, including Santa Cruz, Davis and Palo Alto in California; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Madison, Wisconsin; Boulder Colorado; Charlottesville, Virginia; Hanover, New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont. 

Other cities where Trump managed only 10-15% include San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut; Richmond, Virginia, and Richmond, California. 

More votes for Trump 

Trump’s vote total in Berkeley this year was actually higher than in 2016 by 524 votes, but Biden’s vote total was 2215 votes higher than Clinton’s in 2016. In 2012, Romney managed to get 4.6% of the vote, while John McCain did a bit better in 2008 with 4.9%. George Bush won 6.6% running against Democratic candidate John Kerry in 2004. 

Higher Turnout but Fewer Votes 

Turnout this year was 81.5% of registered voters in Berkeley, up from 78.1% in the 2016 presidential election. The Covid pandemic, however, reduced the pool of potential voters as the UC student population is currently substantially smaller than normal. The number of registered voters was down from 83,778 in 2016 to 79,072 this year. But interest in the election was so strong that the number of votes cast dropped by only 980 votes. 

Turnout by Council District 

November 3, 2020 Election 

The number of votes cast and turnout both reached record levels in districts 1, 2, 3 and 5, exceeding 2008, when Obama was first elected, the year with the highest number of votes ever cast in Berkeley. The number of votes cast in the other districts, which include student neighborhoods, fell even though turnout was higher due to the reduced number of student voters. In District 7, the student supermajority district, only 3126 votes were cast, down from an already relatively low 4898 votes in 2016. The number of voters was two or three times higher in other districts. 

Turnout also reached record levels in Alameda County as a whole. The number of registered voters set a record, increasing by 8.7% compared to 2016. 114,970 more votes were cast, an increase of 17.2% as turnout increased from 75.4% to 81.3%. A major factor spurring higher turnout was the decision made by Governor Newsom in response to the covid pandemic to send a vote by mail ballot to every voter. The increase in drop boxes in Berkeley and the county also helped. In Berkeley, only 6% of ballots were cast at the polls. 

State Props and Regional Measures 

Berkeley voters voted by a huge margin, 84.4% to 15.5%, for State Proposition 15, the constitutional amendment that would have required that commercial and industrial properties be taxed based on their market value. Revenue would have gone to school districts, community colleges and local government. Countywide, the measure won 64.9%. Statewide, it lost 52% to 48%. 

Berkeley voters also strongly supported Prop 16 to repeal the ban on affirmative action. They strongly opposed Prop 22, the measure backed by Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies, who spent more than $200 million to pass the measure. The proposition overrides state law treating their workers as employees. 

Berkeley Continues to Support Rent Control 

Berkeley Voters also favored Proposition 21, 61.3% to 38.7%. This ballot initiative would have allowed local governments to enact rent control on housing that was first occupied over 15 years ago. In Berkeley, this would have meant that rent control could have been extended to cover rental units built between 1980 and 2005, and with the passage of time, on units first occupied in subsequent years. The measure passed in only two counties statewide: San Francisco and Alameda, and passed by only slim margins. It would have failed in Alameda County if not for the strong support it received in Berkeley. 

Berkeley voters also supported Measure MM by a 56.8% to 43.2% margin. This local Berkeley measure amends the city’s rent stabilization ordinance to establish emergency eviction limitations to address situations such as the Covid Pandemic; to authorize registration of rental properties exempt from rent control; and to limit the exemption of ADUs from rent control to owner occupied properties with a single family home and no more than one ADU. 

Measure MM was supported by Mayor Arreguin, by progressive councilmembers and rent board commissioners and by the Berkeley Tenants Union. It was opposed by District 1 councilmember Rashi Keserwani, by the moderate Berkeley Democratic Club, and by some former elected officials including former Mayors Bates and Hancock, and former mayoral candidate Laurie Capitelli. 

How Berkeley Voted November 3 2020 Election 

Selected State Propositions, County and Local Measures 

How voted is how voters in Berkeley voted on the prop or measure. 

Ballots cast are total ballots cast Yes or No on measure. A total of 64,450 ballots were cast in Berkeley. On each prop or measure, some voters left the ballot blank. In the presidential race, 63,974 votes were recorded for candidates on the ballot; 311 wrote-in candidates and only 164 voters, or .3% voted for no one. 

% of vote: percent of vote for or against measure in Berkeley 

MM lost in Districts 5 and 6, both predominantly homeowner districts in the hills, falling short with 45% and 44% of the vote respectively. It passed by large margins in South, West and Central Berkeley, with 64% in District 3 (South Berkeley); 61% in District 2 (southwest Berkeley); 58% in District 1 (northwest Berkeley); and 69% in District 4 (central and Downtown Berkeley). These four districts have substantial tenant populations, especially Districts 3 and 4. District 7, the near campus student super majority district, gave the measure 77% of its votes, though the vote margin was smaller than in the abovementioned districts because of the very low turnout there. District 8 (Southwest Berkeley) also approved the measure 57% in favor. In District 8, precincts closer to campus and west of College supported the measure offsetting the majority opposing the measure in the hills above Claremont Ave. 

Rent Board 

Support for rent control can be seen in the outcome of the contest for five seats on Berkeley’s rent board. The Right to Housing slate, selected at the Tenant Convention this summer swept to victory over the Homeowners for Rent Board slate. Members of the Right to Housing slate received a total of 138,953 votes while their opponents received 71,662 votes. 

Members of the Right to Housing slate got more total votes in every council district, and won more votes than the opposing slate in all of the city’s 33 consolidated precincts, except for two precincts in the hills of District 6 where Homeowner slate member Bahman Ahmadi was the top vote getter. The top vote getter on the Right to Housing slate was incumbent rent board commissioner Leah Simon-Weisberg, Directing Attorney for the Eviction Defense Collaborative. The 31,924 votes she received is the highest vote ever received by a rent board candidate in Berkeley. 

The success of the Right to Housing slate and of Measure MM and of Proposition 21 among Berkeley voters is all the more remarkable given that there were fewer student voters this year due to the pandemic and voting was done in the areas that are majority tenant and historically most pro-rent control. The Homeowner slate was probably hurt more than it was helped by all the independent expenditures by outside real estate groups in support of their candidacies. Backing by special interest groups like the National Association of Realtors Fund, even when it’s unsolicited, has not produced the results those groups were seeking in recent elections. 

Too Many Taxes? 

Berkeley voters approved Measure FF, the parcel tax to fund Berkeley emergency services by an almost 3-1 margin, and approved Measure GG that taxes rides on Uber and Lyft. Berkeley voters also favored Alameda County’s Measure W. However, Berkeley voters rejected Measure HH which would have increased the city’s Utility Users Tax, which appears on everyone’s PG&E bill. The revenue would have funded a Climate Action Fund. The Measure, which required 50% to pass, gained only 47% of the vote. The measure did worst in District 6 which often records the lowest level of support for tax measures, but it also failed in Districts 1, 2 and 3, and in District 5. It passed in Districts 4 and 7 with 50.3% and 53.4% respectively, and in District 8 by a margin of only three votes. 

Measure W 

The large margin of votes in Berkeley in favor of Alameda County Measure W, helped offset the margins against the measure in much of the eastern and southern part of the county. The margin for the measure was 20,075 votes in Berkeley; the measure passed countywide with only a slim 1311 vote margin (50.09% to 49.91%). The measure increases the sales tax rate from 9.25% to 9.75%, and would fund county services including housing and homeless services. It was ahead at the end of election night, but it’s lead dwindled as more votes were counted, and briefly fell behind until the final batches of votes restored a slim lead. 

Easy Wins for Most Council Incumbents 

Incumbent Mayor Arreguin, and incumbent councilmembers Bartlett, Hahn and Wengraf, won re-election by large margins, with the mayor and Councilmember Hahn winning with a record number of votes for a mayoral or council candidate. 

While her colleagues won easy re-election, incumbent District 2 councilmember Cheryl Davila lost by a big margin. When Davila ran in 2016, she won 31.0% of the first choice votes. She defeated incumbent Darryl Moore, who had 39.7% of the first choice votes, by getting most of the second choice votes of the third candidate Nancy Armstrong Temple. 

This year, Davila received only 29.5% of the first choice votes; her successful challenger Terry Taplin received 39.3% of the first choice votes and was easily elected when ranked choice voting allocated the second choice votes of the other two candidates. Davila’s 29.5% is the lowest level of support that any incumbent councilmember seeking re-election has received since District elections were implemented in 1986. Terry Taplin was endorsed by all but one member of the City Council, along with other elected officials who represent Berkeley. 

Endorsements may have made the difference in the School Board race this year as the two winners, Laura Babitt and Ana Vasudeo, had the most support among elected officials and had the backing of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers.