Antioch District 1 Council race still too close to call
Motts’ lead over Torres-Walker continues to shrink but not by much
By Allen D. Payton
The latest update from the Contra Costa Elections office as of Friday, November 13, 2026, at 3:15 p.m., shows challenger and former Antioch Councilwoman Joy Motts maintaining her lead over incumbent Tamisha Torres-Walker in the District 1 City Council race, but it continues to shrink, this time by just three votes.
Only 1,000 additional ballots were counted countywide since the previous update on Tuesday, of which 57 were in the District 1 race. Motts now has 2,818 votes, an increase of 27 votes to Torres-Walker’s 2,712 votes, an increase of 30 votes. So, Torres-Walker picked up 52 percent of the additional 57 votes in the District 1 race and Motts garnered 48 percent.
There are now an estimated 6,500 ballots remaining to be counted in the county.
According to Dawn Kruger, Community and Media Relations Coordinator for the Contra Costa Elections office, of the 6,500 ballots remaining to be counted, “4,500 are provisional or conditional registration with provisional ballots. They’re similar. Provisional ballots are in the yellow envelope at polling places given to people who couldn’t be found, or it has been indicated they already voted. Conditional ballots are for those who moved and claimed they didn’t receive a ballot. That’s one of the reasons. So, we have to check to ensure they haven’t voted somewhere else before we can count their ballot.”
“Some ballots are awaiting signature cure,” she continued. “If someone forgot to sign their ballot envelope or it doesn’t match what’s on file, they have until Nov. 25 to return the correct signature.”
“The provisional ballots we’ll start working on next week, now that we’re done with the damaged ballots that couldn’t be run through the scanners,” Kruger added.
Estimated number of unprocessed ballots:
Ballots voted at a voting location – 0
Vote-by-mail ballots received on or before Election Day – 0
Vote-by-mail ballots received after Election Day – 0
Provisional ballots – 500
Conditional Voter Registration Provisional ballots – 4,000
Other (In Review, Damaged) – 2,000
Total – 6,500
Next Results Expected (date and time): Wednesday, 11/18/2026 – 4:00 PM
Certification Dates
According to the schedule on the Elections office website, the Target Certification / Final Results are projected for Dec. 3rd. According to the California Secretary of State’s Office, “county elections officials must report final official results to the Secretary of State by December 4, 2026. The Secretary of State will certify the results on December 11, 2026.”
the attachments to this post:
Antioch D1 Council results 11-13-26
