On Super Tuesday, voters went to the polls to cast their ballots. Today, we have the unofficial results.
Santa Clara’s Measure C: Defeated
Measure C was a proposed city charter change to split Santa Clara into three districts with two Council Members each. If the current voting trend continues, it seems that Measure C is a no-go for voters. As of publication time, out of about 12,000 voters, 7,000 voted “no” while 5,000 voted “yes.”
Since Santa Clara is currently using a court ordered six-district system, that will continue until Santa Clara can change their charter — however, this point is still being debated amongst City leaders.
Sunnyvale’s Measure B: Passed
Measure B, a proposal to change the Sunnyvale’s charter from an at-large voting system to a six-district system with a directly elected mayor, was passed by Sunnyvale voters. At publication time, out of about 16,000 voters, 10,000 favored the measure, while 6,000 did not.
Currently, Sunnyvale has an at-large system for electing seven Council Member seats and one Council Member is selected from among them to serve a two-year term as Mayor.
If the ballot measure continues on its successful trend, under the new system, there will be six voting districts where voters who live in that area will choose their Council Member and everyone in the City will vote for Mayor.
This would also increase total term limits. Council Members could serve up to three consecutive four-year terms, with no more than two terms as Council Member or Mayor. There would also be a new 30-day Sunnyvale residency requirement on City Council and Mayor candidates.
The new six districts would be used in November 2020. All voters will vote for Mayor in November 2020. Even districts will select their Council representative in 2020 and Odd districts in 2022. View the district map on the Sunnyvale’s website.
Santa Clara Police Chief: Lt. Pat Nikolai
In an uncontested race, Santa Clara’s Lt. Pat Nikolai secured his spot as the City’s Police Chief with about 9,000 votes.
Nikolai will serve out the remainder of former Police Chief Mike Seller’s term and then there will be another Police Chief election in November 2020.
United States Representative, District 17: Ro Khanna
Ro Khanna, the incumbent, seems to have secured his seat once again. As of writing, Khanna has about 66 percent of the voters behind him. District 17 includes the cities of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Milpitas, and Newark, as well as parts of Fremont and San Jose.
California State Assembly, District 25
Bob Brunton is currently the leader in the race for the new face of State Assembly District 25. As of publication, Brunton has about 24 percent of the vote in Santa Clara County while Alex Lee is currently in second place with about 16 percent and Santa Clara resident Anne Kepner has 13 percent. The top two candidates will face off in November. District 25 includes Santa Clara, San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont and Newark.
Kansen Chu is currently the Assembly Member for State Assembly District 25. Kansen is in the running to be the Santa Clara County Supervisor for District 3 — he is currently winning that race.
As of publication, voter turnout in Santa Clara County was about 26 percent. View the developing results on the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters’ website.
View Comments (3)
On the vote for Interm Police Chief : I didn't want to vote for Pat Nikoli as I have been following the Politics
of our Mayor and City Council. I wrote in Mike Sellers. I'm just curious if write in's were counted?.... I know
it doesn't change who is or will be Interm Chief. It was the Principle of it.. Do you know?
Write ins are never counted in any election, ever.
Write ins are never counted in any election, ever.
Actually they are, and sometimes the write in candidate wins the election. Here's a case where the write in candidate won a race for a senate seat! Unfortunately the winner was Strom Thurman ... so it doesn't serve as an endorsement of write in candidates. :-)
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senator_Elected_on_Write_in_Ballot.htm