Antioch Elections Update #2: Householder now leads Simonsen for Clerk – by 30 votes
Antioch City Clerk election results as of 11-10-20 show Antioch School Board Ellie Householder has taken the lead.
Walker expands lead over Motts in Council District 1;
Davis’ lead shrinks to 50 votes over Posada for Treasurer
By Allen Payton
In a surprise update on Tuesday afternoon posted on the Contra Costa Elections Division website, the race for Antioch City Clerk has flipped with Antioch School Board Trustee Ellie Householder pulling into the lead by just 30 votes, with 11,323 to incumbent Arne Simonsen’s 11,293 votes. She had previously conceded the election, last week, congratulating Simonsen on what was believed to be a victory. (Please see related article)
UPDATE: Asked if she was surprised by today’s update and if she wins will she step down from the school board, Householder responded, “I am happily surprised! And no, I won’t step down.” If Householder ends up winning, she will probably be the first elected official in Antioch history to hold two elected offices at the same time. (The Herald will have to research that).
However, not all the votes in the county have been counted, yet and another update is expected on Friday by 5:00 p.m. elections office staff told the Herald. Antioch Councilman and Mayor-elect Lamar Thorpe shared the figure of 10,000 votes left to be counted.
When reached for comment to confirm that figure Assistant Registrar of Voters, Scott Konopasek said, “we expect about 10,000 votes are left to be counted countywide for the whole election, plus about 5,000 provisionals.”
“The 10,000 are mostly ballots that are damaged that have to be duplicated,” he continued. “We’re getting ballots that were dropped off in other counties.”
Ballots can continue to arrive until November 20th and still be included in the county including military ballots.
“I’s not just military, it’s all ballots,” Konopasek said. “We aren’t going to report the provisionals until the 20th. They still have to be processed.”
“Then there are about 2,000 military ballots that were faxed to us, which have to be duplicated. But those are included in the 10,000,” he continued. “On the 20th, we will count all the provisionals and we should be 99.9% completed.”
Asked why the update today, Konopasek responded with a bit of joviality, “We’re taking tomorrow off for Veterans Day. I’m a veteran and I don’t work on Veterans Day!”
Semi-Official Results Update #2 for Antioch City Council District 1 shows Tamisha Walker expanding her lead over Joy Motts.
In the Antioch City Council District 1 race, newcomer Tamisha Walker expanded her lead to 191 votes over incumbent Joy Motts. Walker now has 2,788 votes over Motts’ 2,597. The head had previously been just 12 votes as of the first semi-official update last Friday afternoon. (See related article)
Semi-Official Results Update #2 for Antioch City Council District 1 shows Jim Davis’ lead over Lauren Posada is down to just 50 votes.
In the City Treasurer’s race, appointed incumbent Jim Davis’ lead was cut to just 50 votes over challenger Lauren Posada. It’s the second time the gap has closed, beginning with 1,075 votes difference as of Election Night, then down to 764 between the two as of last Friday’s update. Davis now has 20,679 votes to Posada’s 20,629.
No other significant changes occurred in the other races for Antioch City Council with Mike Barbanica’s lead over former Councilman Tony Tiscareno’s lead dropping by just six votes to now 666 in the District 2 race, and Councilwomen Lori Ogorchock and Monica Wilson winning handily in Districts 3 and 4, respectively. While Ogorchock’s lead dropped by 115 votes to just 550 over newcomer Nichole Gardner, Wilson increased her lead by 844 votes to 3,169 over Police Crime Prevention Commission Chair Sandra White in her first campaign for public office.
In the mayor’s race, Thorpe continued to increase his lead by another 1,080 votes over incumbent Dr. Sean Wright. The lead is now 4,569 votes, now with 19,363 for Thorpe to 14,794 for Wright.
“No (Antioch) mayoral candidate has won with more than 15,000 votes,” Thorpe mentioned.
So, three of the current incumbents will return for another term, Wilson for just two years as her seat will be up for election in 2022, as will the District 1 seat.
In the Antioch School Board races there were no changes, as Antonio Hernandez expanded his lead in Area 1 over incumbent Trustee and Board President Diane Gibson-Gray, and Clyde Lewis expanded his lead over incumbent Trustee Crystal Sawyer-White.
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
the attachments to this post:
ACTreasurer 11-10-20 update
ACC District 1 11-10-20 update
City Clerk results 11-10-20 & Ellie
