West Hollywood City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath continued to widen her lead over state Sen. Bob Hertzberg in the race for a seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, according to newly counted results on Wednesday, Nov. 16.
For the fourth consecutive count, Horvath has increased the lead over the veteran lawmaker from Van Nuys. She has received 52% of the vote as compared to 48% for Hertzberg. Horvath padded her slim lead by another 4,000 votes.
She led by nearly 15,000 votes after additional ballots were tallied on Wednesday, giving her a total of 212,271 votes, to her opponent’s 197,321, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office.
“We feel very good. We will see on Friday,” said Estevan Montemayor, Horvath’s campaign spokesperson on Tuesday, Nov. 15. He noted that since Friday, Horvath has moved ahead of Hertzberg each time ballot results were released from the election more than a week ago. He said the later ballots now being counted are from younger voters, who favor Horvath.
Shortly after the polls closed on Election Day, Nov. 8, Horvath trailed by two percentage points in the first counting of vote-by-mail ballots and some vote-center ballots.
Since then Horvath, 40, has surpassed Hertzberg, 67, in the race to replace Third District Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who is stepping down. While Horvath now leads by 4 percentage points, it still only gives her a slim margin that underscores that this race for an open seat remains a nail-biter and may not produce a winner until the last vote is counted.
Sheriff’s race
Incumbent Sheriff Alex Villaneuva conceded defeat on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Retired Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna has 60% compared to Villanueva’s 40%, according to the Registrar-Recorder’s Office update on Wednesday.
The race to elect the next sheriff started in the June primary when Villanueva got about one-third of the votes, failing to win more than 50%, which forced him into a runoff race against Luna, the June second-place finisher.
Measure A
Measure A, which gives the county Board of Supervisors the power to remove the elected sheriff “for cause,” was winning with 71% of the vote on Wednesday.
The unprecedented measure, which adds an amendment to the county charter, has led throughout the week by very large margins.
If it passes, the elected Board of Supervisors could initiate what some call “an impeachment” of the sheriff by presenting violations, including law-breaking or blocking the investigation of his own department, that the sheriff would then respond to. Removing a sheriff would take four votes of the five-member board.
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On Wednesday, the Registrar-Recorder added 105,160 ballots — 103,126 Vote by Mail ballots and 2,034 New Registration/Provisional Ballots from Election Day — for a cumulative total of 1,997,887 ballots counted.
The estimated number of outstanding ballots to be processed is 463,050, the Registrar-Recorded reported on Wednesday.
The Registrar-Recorder’s vote processing center will be busy again on Thursday, Nov. 17 for the next ballot count update. It is tentatively scheduled to certify all county elections on Dec. 5.
Staff writer Olga Grigoryants contributed to this report