The website for the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters says that 100% of precincts have reported vote totals in Santa Clara for the Nov. 8 election, however, that does not mean the Santa Clara mayor’s race is over.
“We have mountains of ballots that we’re going through right now,” said Evelyn Mendez, the Public and Legislative Affairs Manager for the Office of the Registrar of Voters. “Every day for the next month, we’re going to be processing.”
As of Thursday night, incumbent Lisa Gillmor leads the race for mayor with 9,210 votes. That’s 250 votes more than challenger Anthony Becker’s 8,960 votes. However, Mendez says 59,831 ballots were issued in the City of Santa Clara for this election and only 18,170 have been processed so far.
Over the next three to four weeks, elections officials will process ballots. That means the ballots are opened, flattened, the signatures and voting precinct are verified before the ballots are handed over to the ballot counters to put them into the machine.
Registrar of Voters employees spent the election night at voting centers working to make sure people who voted on the day of the election were serviced. Only now are they starting to deal with the mail-in ballots and those collected at voting centers.
All that is to say we are a long way away from knowing who the next mayor of Santa Clara will be.
“We can’t certify or predict the end of the race until we get all of the ballots in. We have a lot of ballots still to process,” said Mendez.
The Registrar of Voters has until 30 days after the election (Dec. 8) to certify the results. Only after the election is certified can a candidate ask for a recount.
With a little over a percentage point separating the two candidates, it’s likely that no matter which candidate wins the Santa Clara mayor’s race, the other will ask for a recount.
For a look at all the local election results, click here or visit the Registrar of Voters’ website.
View Comments (10)
Thank you for reporting this, I for one have been wondering and as of this morning my vote for Becker has not been counted. Go #TeamBecker, #NoMoreGillmor
We hope Ms Gillmor understands that there is a huge proportion of the city that are sick of 60 year Family Reign of a City. And her leadership is not healthy, her leadership is about hate. She and WanTaBe Mayor are hate mongers, spilling vial and untrue stories about people and incidents.
NoMoreGillmor,
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From what I have seen it appears that Anthony Becker is the one who spreads untrue stories about people.
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It is Becker who made a big show of demanding that Gillmor condemn an obscure blog almost nobody reads because two comments written by readers out of thousands posted in a year were homophobic. He even tried to insinuate a homophobic slight was made against him at a Pride Day flag raising and it was simply silly when one can see pictures of Gillmor standing back while Becker raises the flag.
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Becker also claims that Burt Field incited death threats against him by making an analogy that clearly would not incite any threats against Becker much less death threats.
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Becker also knows that his partner or a friend of his partner has made the an allegation against Watanabe involving hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric. The allegation is without any proof or detailed comment and when the person making this allegation is asked for more explanation they give none and block the questioner on Twitter. Becker will say nothing about this and it fits his pattern of behavior to be happy to let someone close to him spread seeming lies against a political opponent.
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If you want to make accusations you need to back them up. Your comment seems like more Becker style political character assassination.
We have quite enough people reaching their hands into our pockets these days, we don't need an entertainment industry that is hell bent on doing the same. The 49er management dumped a king's ransom into the race to try to sell us a bill of goods for their all in mayor. I trust enough voters have seen through this charade.
I know Mr. Becker personally, for quite a few years. Trust me when I say this is not someone you want in a position of power.
James,
If you want people to trust your opinion on Becker you need to show that you are trustworthy or that your opinion is.
Erika,
Thank you for your reply on the earlier article and also for this update. It does seem that the county may have five to ten more days of counting before all ballots are counted and even if the trend continues it will be much later until either Becker or Gillmor is mathematically eliminated. And I do agree with you that either way that it goes if the margin is under five hundred votes I would expect either to demand a recount.
Erika,
Gillmor's lead is now at 571 votes with 79% of expected ballots counted. Gillmor's lead has grown with every single vote count update and if the trend continues then she will probably win by seven hundred to eight hundred votes or a difference of around 2.5%.
Have you or anyone at the Silicon Valley Voice interviewed Anthony Becker in the past several days? I am curious if there is any threshold of vote difference that he considers definitive enough to not ask for a recount. What are the rules for a recount? What is the threshold for vote count or % difference inside which a candidate is allowed to demand a recount?
From the SCC Gov website:
Pursuant to Board of Supervisors’ Policy 3.63, the County of Santa Clara perform an automatic recount for contests with a margin of victory less than 0.25% (one-quarter of one percent) of ballots cast, or where that margin is less than 25 total votes.
The Dude,
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Thank you for that detail I remember seeing Robert Haugh mention the same thing in a piece on Santa Clara News.
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That is about automatic recall that I think would be in effect unless the losing candidate conceded the election but what I am wondering is whether or not there are any county or city rules about granting recount requests. Is there a maximum difference in votes or percentage of the vote under which a candidate is entitled to ask for a recount?
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I think I have read before that candidates can request a recount and it may be granted if they agree to pay for the recount but I wonder if there is a vote or percentage delta at which the county or city can refuse to perform a recount even if the requesting candidate will pay for it.
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I also wonder what the number or percentage is that will make the Forty Niners consider spending more this year to be throwing good money after bad after wasting millions of dollars on Becker already.
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Excuse me not wasted. "Invested" for when they try to put him in as their man in the mayor's seat in 2026.